Reading Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi
by Dylan Millwood
Summary: Done with the permission of MothBallz, who did the base story, "Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi"
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Done with the permission of MothBallz, who did the base story, "Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi", and adopted from TrollerBear who made an attempt at the Reading version of it.**_

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki frowned in concentration as he once more began to examine the seal matrix that his old sensei, Kakashi Hatake, had brought him to look at. It was odd, some sort of design which neither of them had seen before. It had only been a week or so after the end of the fourth shinobi war and Kakashi had been cleaning out the old basement that sat below the Hokage's tower.

It was almost time for Kakashi to take the mantle of Hokage and he had decided to do something that had not been done since the office was created; clean out the storage room that the Hokage used. It was a personal storage meant only for the one who would sit in the seat and the only reason he had felt comfortable with Naruto in the room was due to the fact that he was sure that Naruto would easily take the position after him.

It was during their cleaning of the room that Kakashi had stumbled onto a very old sealing tag that he had not recognized. He and Naruto had to go through everything, making sure it was safe to be thrown away or destroyed if not, and the sealing tag was something that he had immediately brought towards the attention of his ex-student. The man was, after all, the best seal master that Konoha had.

Naruto had quirked an eyebrow upon seeing it before double taking in its direction. Not even he could decipher the complexities that this seal was and because of that he had cleared a portion of the floor and began to study it. Truth be told it was the most complex thing he had ever seen; the only portion that he had been able to make out was some sort of space-time paradox that easily outclassed his father's Hiraishin.

"How's the seal going Naruto?" At the call of his sensei the blonde man turned his head towards the man before the frown on his face became stronger. "I don't get it at all dattebayo! I've studied the works of my father, mother, Jiraiya, and even Uzumaki Mito. None of what I have ever seen even comes close to this seal and I'm kinda curious to see what it'll do."

Kakashi frowned at that. "Naruto we have no clue where that seal came from and activating it would be a terrible idea. You should not even consider doing something like that." As soon as the words left his mouth Kakashi's eyes widen. He had just made the mistake of telling Naruto Uzumaki to _not_ do something. The teenager was as pig-headed as they came and as the masked man saw the grin begin to stretch at the hero's mouth he knew that he had fucked up.

"Naruto, don't!" His cries where met with nothing but a blinding light as Naruto sent some of his chakra through the seal, already determining that it was non-lethal. When the light died down there was no sign of either student or sensei, both having disappeared with the light that was now vacant from the dank basement.

* * *

Blake Belladonna let out a slight sigh as she perused the large book shelf that resided within the establishment known as the _Sage's Tome Trade._ It was a store that she was not as familiar with as _Tuskon's_ , but it was the only other store in the city of Vale that had a similar enough reputation as _Tuskon's_ that she did not mind shopping at it.

Her favorite book store, which was situated so much closer to the bullhead station that she used to go to and fro from Beacon Academy, had recently been closed and she had been forced to look for an alternative. As far as the black-haired girl's knowledge went the _Sage's Tome Trade_ was the only other book store in all of Vale that had an equal selection _and_ treated faunus as kindly as Tuskon had.

Her keen eyes narrowed at the thought. Of course, faunus acceptance was the higher priority on the list, but she refused to shop at a store that did not have a decent selection.

As Blake continued to go through the books that resided within the fiction portion of the store a light frown began to form on her face. There was a great deal here and the girl found herself in need of possible assistance in choosing a book of her preference. She turned away from the shelf, making her way towards the front of the store.

As she approached the counter she couldn't help but smile at the visage of the man that sat behind it. She had heard rumors of him and his strange appearance before, but the girl truthfully found it to be rather fresh. Perhaps he just belonged to a stranger species of faunus than herself, but his appearance could be called anything but inconspicuous.

The man was pale, deathly so, and had short-cropped white hair sitting atop his head and a beard that brushed the counter it was so long. His eyes were a deep purple, lacking sclera, and two horns sat atop his head. He looked up from the large and foreign book that he had been reading as Blake approached him, a small smile framing his face.

"Hello young miss and welcome to my shop. Is there anything that I can hel p you with?" The elderly man offered the girl a small smile, one that she retuned eagerly. He seemed so welcoming, so kind. At the same time, there was an intelligence and wisdom that he seemed to exude; something that she had never seen before.

She nodded her head before she held up a book that she carried with her; _Ninja's of Love_ being her favorite title it was subject to being carried around with her. "Yes, I was hoping that you would be able to recommend something similar to this book. A piece of fiction."

The old man nodded as he closed the old piece that sat in front of him, the book being fashioned to the name of the store; a legitimate tome. He did not walk from out behind the counter like she had expected, no, instead the man leaned down and produced an old novel from the recesses that she could not see.

It was old and leather-bound. The book itself had a rather non-descript title and no cover art. _Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi_ it read. The title of the book was the only thing present on the front and it appeared to be done in some sort of beautiful gold leafing. As Blake opened to the first page she once more felt the age of the book in front of her. Brown were the pages, oxidized over the years since it had been printed. The book was truly beautiful, a patronage to the arts before heavy printing had been available.

"I want you to have this book Blake Belladonna" the old man said as he turned around to straighten something out behind him. "It will cost you nothing, but I request that you read this title with some friends or family perhaps. It is a good group read that I highly recommend that follows the tale of a shinobi. You know them by their more street name, ninja."

As the man finished Blake's eyes practically shone with excitement, but something was stopping her. This was an old book and that meant that it had great collector value. She couldn't so easily take something that didn't belong to her that she had not worked to pay for. As the old man caught sight of her imminent protests he raised his hand.

"Do not worry too much about it. If you are concerned about the value of the book, simply return it to me when you are finished with it. I like to put my faith in the young generation and I will put my faith in you." As he finished he lifted the larger book with both hands and passed it to the wide-eyed girl.

Blake took it gently, almost lovingly, as she held the book close to herself. Offering the man a final goodbye she ran out of the store, already more than happy to share the novel with her friends at Beacon. This could be a good way to distract them from the up and coming Vytal festival and it would be much needed break for both teams RWBY and JNPR.

As she made her way out of the building she missed the wince from the old man. "Good thing she didn't notice me call her by name" the man spoke aloud, alone once more within his store. A smile graced his face once again as he walked to the front of the building and produced a closed sign to put on the storefront.

His work here was done and he could not wait to see the product of his meddling.

* * *

As Blake returned to her dorm room she was greeted with the sight of her team lounging around doing nothing. As she closed the door behind her she noticed her team leader perk up and turn her way before speaking. "Blake! Where were you today? We had practice with Jaune and his team earlier but we couldn't find you? Are you okay?"

As the diminutive team leader entered Blake's personal space, firing off far too many questions in such a short amount of time, the taller of the two smiled at the team leader. It wasn't a grin or anything large, but a small smile from Blake Belladonna did convey a great deal. As the smile framed Blake's face Ruby instantly quieted, intent on learning why her friend was in such a good mood.

"Sorry for not being able to make it to practice on time Ruby, but I was going to get some literature. The book store that I have been using has currently been closed and I had to go across town in order to shop at a different one."

The girl nodded her head, but became rather surprised when Blake produced an old novel from her backpack in order to show it to the girl. It was old, like, really old. Ruby couldn't stop herself from lightly tracing her fingers over the leather cover as she read the title.

" _Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi?"_

As the youngest girl snapped out of her own thoughts she idly noted that Weiss and Yang had moved in order to join the two at the front of the room. They most likely desired to know what the commotion was about as well.

"I've never heard of that title before. It seems to be near ancient and well preserved as well. We had some books of similar age in the Schnee library back home, but even ours were not in such good condition."

Once again Blake felt her lips tug upwards as she watched her team look at the book in curiosity. "You know the man who gave it to me wanted me to read it with my friends?"

At her question all of her teammates looked rather surprised, but name came as close to Ruby. The girl's eyes were practically shining in excitement at the prospect. "Can we start now?! Can we Blake?"

The whine sounded cuter than just about anything and Blake easily relented. It wasn't as if this was not her plan to begin with. "Alright Ruby just go and see if team JNPR wants to join and then we can start."

Blake had not even finished her sentence when Ruby disappeared from sight, a flurry of rose petals was the only thing left in her wake. Immediately returning with Jaune, who seemed quite struck, and the rest of his team shortly behind, she looked to Blake with bated breath.

"What's all the commotion about?" The blonde boy could only rub his head as he familiarized with his setting. One minute he had been in his bed and the next he had appeared inside of Ruby's dorm.

"We were just about to start story time and Blake had asked Ruby to inform your team. Instead she appears to have forcibly dragged you here before asking." The comment came from Weiss as she looked at her team leader who was now scratching her head. The girl seemed to be blatantly disregarding the semantics and was already seated and ready to begin reading.

As no one from JNPR voiced any kind of concerns Blake opened the book to the first page.

As she did so she, her team, and JNPR were all met with a blinding light. As quick as it came it was gone, but as Blake's eyes readjusted she quickly realized that they were no longer in the training ground. As she quickly scanned the small room that they were currently in she began to think that they may no longer be in Beacon Academy.

The room was white, terrifyingly so, and was only accented by two white couches, a white-stained table, and a wall-mounted television. Granted there was a hallway, but she was more concerned with why someone had hired Weiss as an interior decorator.

It seemed to not matter that she was reluctant to explore as Ruby immediately zoomed down the hallway and back, using her Semblance in order to get her there faster. As she returned she frowned and quickly pouted before speaking. "Where are we?! The hallway only leads to a kitchen, a bathroom, and a couple of bedrooms!"

She seemed frantic, at least until Yang put a hand on her shoulder. Her sister didn't say anything, but Blake could tell that the girl was easily looking out for threats.

"Guy's I think you should get a look at the T.V." This time it was Jaune who spoke and as each of them turned towards the television all of them began to spook a little bit.

'Wait for the final members before reading the book.'

The words displayed on the television and all of the currently residing students began to grow wary of the room that they were currently trapped in. That was the case until they were once more blinded by a light very similar to the initial one that hit.

Once it died down all of the present students of beacon academy where met with a man who could have been the missing brother of Professor Ozpin smacking a blonde boy rather hard upside the head. "Idiot! You have no idea what that seal was and you so carelessly activated it!? That could've been something left over from the warring states days when the Shodaime took the office! Now where the hell are we?"

As the man finished, letting out a rather indignant huff, he turned towards the rest of the people in the room. He only blinked slowly before he lazily raised his hand towards the group. "Yo" the man began. "None of you would happen to know where it is that we are would you?"

As his questions finished all students of Beacon academy shook their heads in negativity, causing the masked man to let out a long sigh. "Great just great. Looks like you've gone and gotten us trapped somewhere Naruto." As he finished the man walked over towards the couch, sitting down on it and tried to change the channel on the television with the controls.

"Oi" the oldest in the room began, causing everyone to look in his direction. "What's this television saying about reading a book?"

As all students turned towards the television they found that the stranger was indeed correct. Instead of the previously seen message a new one was displayed for all the occupants. 'Finish introductions and then begin to read.'

Yang Xiao-Long simply shrugged her shoulders as she read the message. As far as the adrenaline-seeking teenager was concerned she might as well just go with the flow. She quickly extended her arm towards her fellow blonde, who was still on the ground clutching his head, before she introduced herself.

"Hey there! The name's Yang Xiao-Long and don't you forget it." As she said this she helped hoist the boy onto his feet, giving him a large grin that could almost the boy's own.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki and the same goes for you, dattebayo!"

As soon as the resident brawler of team RWBY had given her introduction the rest of her team seemed quick to follow. Ruby quickly raised her hand, waving at the boy, before she smiled brightly. "I'm Yang's sister and I'm Ruby Rose! It's nice to meet you." Naruto smiled at the young girl, quickly returning her wave with one of his own. She seemed genuine and that was something that the boy had always respected. It was hard to find people like that in a world of shinobi.

With their introductions out of the way Ruby and Yang quickly went over to sit at the table, each giving Kakashi a wave as they passed him by. As Naruto turned back towards the large group of individuals the next one to introduce themselves left him rather confused. "I am Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee dust company" the white-themed girl began, giving a small curtsey as she did so.

The boy nodded his head, offering a small bow, before the girl went and joined her friends at the table. Naruto's mannerisms may have been rough, but if Granny Tsunade had ever caught wind of him treating a possible foreign dignitary with disrespect? Well he was not sure what would come to pass, all he knew is that he didn't want any of it.

The black-haired girl with the bow atop her head nodded in his direction as she followed the Schnee girl past him. "Blake Belladonna," was all the girl offered before joining the other three. Truthfully the cat faunus had been rather afraid as to what was happening. The book given to her by the store owner had done this and she was rather confused as to why.

Naruto just chuckled lightly to himself. He was slightly miffed at the lack of attention that she had given, but was easily able to figure that her mind must be elsewhere. It was then that he turned towards his fellow blonde, only this one was very much so taller than he was. Extending his hand, he clasped his with the individual. "Name's Jaune Arc."

As that introduction finished Jaune made his way over towards the couch, sitting at the opposite end as Kakashi. The grey headed man offered him a lazy wave as he slowly pulled a familiar orange book from his shinobi pouch and began to read.

Pyrrha Nikos, four-time consecutive winner of the Mistral regionals, clapped her hands together and offered a beautiful smile to the blonde in front of her. "Hello" the girl began, her voice coming out cheery. "I'm Pyrrha, nice to meet you!"

Naruto offered the girl a small smile and an awkward wave as she went to join her team leader on the couch. He smiled as he watched the girl sit next to Jaune and begin speaking to him so animatedly. As he returned his sight to the last two individuals that he had not met yet he offered them a small smile and a brief apology.

"Sorry about that but she looks very similar to my mother." They both nodded their heads before a grin split the girl's face.

"Oh Ren! We should totally go and get some pancakes when we are done here! I heard the diner that we go to in Vale now uses some even higher quality maple syrup!"

The dark-haired man that was wearing the green tail-coat simply sighed lightly. "I'm Lie Ren and this is Nora Valkyrie. It's a pleasure to meet you." He offered a light bow as grabbed Nora and made his way over to the opposing couch. Naruto just chuckled lightly to himself as he made his way over next to Kakashi. Sitting next to the man, but still having a space between himself and Pyrrha.

It was then that the instruction on the television began to fade away, being replaced by new ones. 'begin to read the book. Take turns per chapter. The fridge in the kitchen and the pantry are stocked in need of meals.'

"Um what book exactly is he talking about?"

The question from Naruto had everyone turning to face him once more before Ruby produced the old book from seemingly nowhere. "This book," she began only for Naruto to raise an eyebrow in question.

"Well," the boy began before shrugging his shoulders. "Who wants to read the first chapter?"

As the words left his mouth all eyes from the Remnant crowd turned towards one Blake Belladonna. She initially figured it must be someone or something behind her, so she too turned to look. Once she did she realized that she was the center of attention and let out a short sigh to herself. Holding out her hand Ruby passed her the book, a triumphant smile on the young girl's face.

Blake coughed, clearing her throat before she began with the first chapter. " _Remnant's Maelstrom Shinobi_ chapter one."

 **The city of Vale. One of the four major cities of Remnant that stood as a symbol of mankind's perseverance and ingenuity. It, along with its sister cities, cast a light of hope into the hearts of people around the world, showing the world that no amount of Grimm or disaster could eliminate the human spirit so long as one light shone through the dark.**

"Oi, not to interrupt," Kakashi began. "But, what exactly is a Grimm?" As the question was raised a visual representation of several more well-known Grimm displayed on the television. A pack of Beowulf in one frame before shifting to a large Ursa Major.

"They are the creatures against humanity. Their only goal is to eradicate humanity from the face of the earth." Weiss sighed as the words left her mouth. "It is believed that they appeared shortly after the dawn of mankind and did everything that they could to destroy us, but we were able to learn and adapt. Fighting back through the use of our semblance and aura."

As Weiss finished her lengthy history lesson Yang grinned next to her. "Calm down there, nerd. Don't want to give the masked man an aneurism." Weiss quickly turned red but ignored the obvious bait from her blonde teammate. Huffing and turning away from the blonde it became apparent that she was done with this discussion.

Blake simply sighed before she began again.

 **As a major capital Vale boasted one of the largest shopping districts as well as numerous smaller settlements that lay on the outskirts of the sprawling city. At the heart of Vale was the prestigious Beacon Academy.**

 **It was here at Beacon that the defenders of Vale were trained to combat the forces of darkness. These defenders, normal men and women, who had chosen to dedicate their lives to keeping Vale and her citizens safe were called Huntsmen and Huntresses. Wielding their own unique weapon alongside their equally unique power known as Semblance these warriors were to be the first and last line of defense against those that would wish to harm the citizens of their city.**

 **They were to be symbols unto themselves; symbols of strength, pride, and hope.**

"Similar to the ninja academy," Naruto noted to his sensei. Sure enough the man nodded his own head in agreement. He may be a rather lazy individual, but that would not stop him from stealing possible lesson plans from the instructors and using and implementing them within Konoha.

He gave Naruto a look of gratitude as the blonde handed him a notebook and pencil. The blonde was only saving himself the effort of designing academy curriculum down the line when he inevitably became Hokage.

 **It was here at the entrance to Beacon Academy that we find a tall and well-built teen admiring the massive structure that was the academy. The teen surveyed the building with blue eyes so intense that they seemed to be like twin pools of the ocean itself. Three marks that resembled whisker marks marked his tan face on each cheek. Blonde hair as gold as the sun fell in messy spikes around his head, the bangs falling across his forehead, further accentuating his electric blue eyes.**

 **The blonde was garbed in clothing that seemed fitting of a warrior ready to march on to the battle lines. A plain black shirt with some sort of swirl in a burnt orange color on the chest clung to his top half. Over top the shirt was a black jacket with the same swirl on each shoulder. The top part of the shoulder was covered by some form of white armor. The back of the jacket as well as some parts of the front were dotted with the same pieces of white armor.**

 **Covering his bottom half was a pair of plain grey pants. On his left thigh was a black pouch. Laying horizontally attached to his belt was a small and plain looking scroll. Covering his feet was a pair of black leather boots with the ends of his pants tucked into the ankle high footwear.**

 **Standing at a solid six foot with a lithe build, the blonde would have struck an imposing figure if not for the twitching of his eye and the fluffy orange furred fox kit wrapped around his neck like a scarf.**

Naruto's eyes went wide as the book finished describing him. "Oi don't tell me that this book is going to follow me!" His shout was indignant and bothered. Of course it would be. Who would desire for others to be able to read their personal thoughts.

Next to him Kakashi snickered. He was all the more ready to continue taking notes on this story that he would be able to use against his protégé as revenge for getting him stuck in this situation to begin with. The blonde's eyebrow twitched erratically as Blake ignored him and continued to read the story.

 **"Remind me again why the hell I have to go to school...AGAIN Kurama?" The blonde asked aloud, voice dripping in annoyance.**

At that revelation Naruto became interested. Not in school, nah screw school, but in being able to conjure a body for Kurama to walk around in. If he could escape the boundaries of the seal that would be extremely nice. _"I agree kit. It would be nice to stretch my limbs once in awhile."_ a voice in Naruto's mind rang out, Naruto already knowing it was Kurama speaking.

 **Some would think the teen crazy for talking to himself however that was far from the case. The fox that lay around his neck stirred and allowed one of its closed eyelids to crack open revealing ruby red eyes. Shaking its head in a very human show of exasperation a gruff male voice rang through the blonde's head, 'Because it seems to be both the easiest and best way to get a job and possibly some answers. Besides it should be easier since you have done this before. Also, don't talk out loud you dumbass, people will think you're nuts.'**

Everyone from Beacon had their eyes wide like dinner plates, and were having a bit of trouble picking out words to even try to react to what was currently going on.

"Did that fox… just talk? More accurately, use telepathy?" Ren queried.

"Yes, yes he did, it'll be a thing explained later, for now, just roll with it." Naruto explained.

"Works for me!" Blake stopped reading as she, and everyone else, turned towards Nora and Ren. The boy simply face-palmed before shaking his head in mild exasperation. "Please continue Blake." The request came out more urgent than intended but it was easy enough to tell why. Nora herself simply shrugged her shoulders, not exactly understanding the situation.

 **A sigh escaped the teen's lips before his head fell in resignation, 'But I hated school then and I doubt this will be any different from the Academy back in Konoha.'**

 **'That may well be true, but keep in mind that despite the situation not changing YOU have changed Naruto. And for kami's sake please don't act a fool. I think we've suffered one lifetime too many of that,' the voice replied back.**

Ruby couldn't help but send the sitting blonde a sympathetic look. She too hated school and she could easily sympathize with anyone who held sentiment similar to her own. The boy simply sent her a thumbs up and a grin, making her smile in a way similar to his.

"Kami?" Yang questioned, her head tilted to the side, wondering what that meant.

"Kami" Kakashi began, "is another word for a god, deity, divinity, or spirit. Many times when used it is referring to the concept of gods, so it's basically another way of saying "God"."

"Ohhh, that makes sense." Ruby surmised.

 **Stretching his limbs, the now named Naruto sighed again and folded his arms behind his head, 'Wasn't exactly my decision. Not my fault those teachers were too bigoted to actually teach me properly.'**

 **'Fair point kit, but you also weren't exactly helping yourself by acting like an idiot either.'**

 **'Touché Kurama, touché.'**

It was Kakashi's turn to frown. He had learned during his initial gauging of skill of team seven that Naruto had been neglected during the academy. The boy should have been far more able than he had been, given his current level of skill. If he struggled with a couple of techniques it would have been okay, but the boy had truly been shafted on the teacher selection for the first couple of years of the academy. Truth be told Kakashi had a rather good idea of how much Mizuki had jeopardized Naruto's education and it honestly made the silver haired man sick.

 **Before the mental conversation between the teen and fox could continue they were both startled by a sudden explosion only a few yards away from them. Both raised an eyebrow as they saw a girl about Naruto's age dressed in all white screaming and hollering at a younger girl in red.**

"Oh no!" This time it was Ruby's turn to lament her introduction. She pulled her hood above her head, already knowing what was coming. This was not how she wanted to be introduced! Why couldn't it have started when she took down Torchwick?! Why did she have to be introduced after exploding?!

Not only that but now Yang would get to see what actually happened during her initial meeting with Weiss! She could already see the snickering face of her sister every time she closed her eyes. Oh, the humanity!

 **Their eyebrows ascended even higher as a girl in black interfered on behalf of the girl in red. Naruto felt bad for the younger girl seeing the regally dressed girl in white stomp off with the girl in black quietly sauntering off, leaving the girl in red to fall to her knees in sadness.**

 **Feeling sympathetic Naruto made his way over to the red themed girl who was muttering to herself about knees...which was rather odd.**

"Good going Ruby, your possible knight in shining armor arrives on the scene and you weird him out by talking about your knees of all things!" Yang chided, thinking it was such a wasted opportunity for her sister.

"It's your fault Yang!" Ruby retorted from within her hood, still a bit salty about what happened on the first day while Naruto blushed at what Yang was implying.

"How is it my fault?!"

"You were the one that said people would think I was the bee's knees! Then you left me, your own sister, to fend for herself alone!" Ruby whined from within her hood, albeit rather dramatically but still, she had a point.

 **Not one to judge though Naruto lowered his hand into the girl's vision, offering to help her up.**

Before Yang could even make a comment, Ruby removed her hood and looked at Naruto with wide, brimming, and tear-stained eyes. If Naruto had been there on that day, would he have come to her aid as well? She was touched and happy, her nervousness already being forgotten as she began to swing her legs in the tall chairs that they were sitting on.

 **The Red Riding Hood look alike turned curious gray eyes up to the owner of the hand and was slightly surprised to see a rather good looking blonde offering her help. She took the offered hand and was a little surprised when the teen pulled her to her feet with only a slight tug.**

 **Naruto had to resist the urge to slap himself when he noted just how attractive the red haired girl was.**

 **'Seems that you inherited your father's love of red hair, ne?' Kurama chuckled mentally.**

And just like that Ruby had already retreated back into her cloak, a defense mechanism similar to that of an ostrich. If she could not see the world, than the world could not see her. Meanwhile on the couch Naruto's face was lit up in a light blush as well.

"Sorry Ruby...didn't mean or want to make you feel awkward like that." Naruto said to his new acquaintance.

At the sound of a perverse giggle, Naruto turned and glared at his sensei, who was currently grinning at the boy through his mask, he growled out three words.

"Don't. You. Dare."

His threat did nothing to his, still grinning, sensei. The man simply turned back towards his notebook, scribbling down a couple of words before looking at Blake. "We are ready when you are." As he said the words Naruto couldn't help but notice the smugness in his sensei's voice. Then and there Naruto Uzumaki swore to himself that _he_ would have the last laugh.

 **Naruto just childishly glared at the cheeky fox.**

 **Before he could come up with a rebuttal the girl whose hand he was still holding spoke up, "Uh...thanks for that...um..."**

 **Realizing that the girl was asking for his name Naruto let go of her hand and grinned, "Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."**

"I don't get it, is Naruto your first name or your last name?" Nora asked Naruto with a curious demeanor.

"Naruto is my first name, some cultures, like back home introduced themselves with their last names first. It's a tradition that mostly only people close to you may call you by your given name." He explained with a shrug. "Personally, I never cared much for it."

 **The girl's face lit up in a smile, "Nice to meet ya! I'm Ruby Rose."**

"Aww just look at how adorable my little sister is!" Yang glanced over at Ruby only to begin laughing as she saw that her sister had all but vanished inside of her own hood. She had always found teasing her younger sibling to be fun, but this was just too much.

 **The sound of Kurama's snickering echoed in Naruto's head causing his brow to twitch. Of course, the fox would find her name amusing. Though even he had to admit that it was all pretty funny. Red cloak with red highlights? And her name was Ruby Rose? Yeah it seemed like her parents really wanted her to like the color red or liked the story of Little Red Riding Hood a little too much.**

 **On the other hand he wasn't one to talk either. After all he had gone around in a bright orange jumpsuit for a few years and then spent another 3 or so years in a darker version of that same jumpsuit. Even now his love for the color orange was hard to repress, evident by the rather large swirl on his chest.**

At that declaration, it was the Schnee who looked at him, disgusted. "You would actually wear something like that? That sounds absolutely hideous!" Naruto shrugged his shoulders but was rather surprised when someone from the Remnant crowd came to his defense.

"Are you really one to talk, Weiss? I mean you aren't in Atlas anymore. White isn't natural camouflage for you anymore." The white theme girl turned towards Blake, astonished that she would even say such a thing. Her glare was only returned by the victorious smirk of her teammate before the girl broke eye contact and, once more, began to read.

 **Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind along with the sounds of a still laughing Kitsune Naruto offered one of his patented foxy grins, "So I take it this is your first year here at Beacon?"**

 **Ruby nervously chuckled, "That obvious huh?"**

 **"No all the experienced Hunters and Huntresses are blowing themselves up with Dust," Naruto chuckled.**

Yang simply elbowed her partner before grinning. "This is going to be great." Blake didn't say anything, but her yellow eyes did linger on her team leader. A small smile framed her face as the girl continued to hide, obviously distraught by the unrelenting teasing of her friends and sister.

 **Childishly flailing her arms Ruby replied back, "But it wasn't my fault! I mean well I guess it kind of was, but still it was an accident and now because of that I won't have any friends and this is gonna be horrible and..."**

 **Naruto could only barely resist the urge to laugh at the rambling girl. How she was able to talk so fast was a little mind boggling but he had seen stranger so he let her continue to vent out her frustrations.**

 **A few minutes later a slightly winded Ruby blushed as she kicked at the ground, realizing that she had just spilled her guts to a guy she had met all of five minutes ago. The thought that he would be too weirded out with her to be her friend crossed her mind. Luckily before she could go on another worry induced ramble Naruto's voice broke through her thoughts.**

 **"Better?"**

 **"...little bit," Ruby admitted.**

"Now it's time for my entrance," Jaune Arc stated, confident in his call. He had appeared here when he had first met Ruby and it would only make sense for him to do so here now. Pyrrha sent him a light smile, but no one really acknowledge it.

 **For a few seconds neither said anything, Naruto just standing there still grinning and Ruby still blushing in embarrassment. Then it broke. Laughter overtook the silence and filled the air, the two enjoying the oddness of the situation.**

 **When they had regained their breath and were now just chuckling out the last of their laughs Ruby asked, "So you're a returning student here?"**

 **Naruto flashed her a grin, "Nope!"**

 **A sweat drop trailed down Ruby's head.**

 **"Wait so you're a new student like me?"**

Yang Xiao-Long erupted into laughter. This time it sounded more like cheers as she listened to Blake read through the rather awkward interactions between her sister and the man that she had only recently met. She usually would not be so relentless in her teasing, but this? This was simply gold.

 **"Yup!"**

 **Ruby cried crocodile tears, "I was hoping you would be able to show me around!"**

 **Naruto shrugged before folding his arms behind his head, "Well it can't be that hard to get around here...right?"**

Jaune Arc blinked at Blake when she explained the page break that was indicative of the next scene. "So, where was I at?" At his question eyes turned towards him, inquisitively. They all knew that this was where Jaune was supposed to make his entrance and none of them had any idea where it was that he was. The question would only continue to grow in their minds.

* * *

 **The gathering of incoming students to Beacon all raised an eyebrow together as a girl in red came soaring through the open doors of the hall like she had been shot out of a canon. Lucky for her she landed in the arms of a busty blonde haired teen who grinned at her like the situation was normal.**

"The one and only Yang Xiao-long makes her grandiose appearance." The grin that stretched the blonde's face was wide, yet diminished slightly at what she heard next.

"Thank god there is only one of her."

She turned to Weiss, who was currently whispering to Blake. The betrayal! Yang huffed as she flicked her hair, making quite the show of it, as Weiss and Blake erupted into light giggles on the side. She had been betrayed, abandoned for the Schnee! Yang Xiao-Long would have to remember that.

 **"Ruby!"**

 **Realizing that she was currently in her sister's arms Ruby wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck and cried in joy, "Yang! I'm so glad to see you!"**

 **Before anyone could question why Ruby had come through the door via the air, their attention was drawn back to the entrance of the hall where a blur of yellow raced into the hall before quickly slamming the twin doors shut.**

 **There leaning against the door, panting and out of breath, stood another blonde with a frightened look to him. Even weirder was that a small fox kit was mirroring the blonde, looking equally terrified.**

Kakashi's eyes were wide in astonishment. His student, the man who defeated Kaguya, and was revered as the strongest ninja _of all time_ was afraid of something. Kakashi could only let out a shaky breath at the thought. Whatever was attempting to breach that door must have truly been monstrous. Perhaps the strongest of all Grimm had come to challenge an appropriate champion?

 **Ruby hopped out of her sister's arms and rushed the panting blonde, clutching to his chest like he was her husband who had just come back from war.**

Yang bit her lip, trying desperately to hold in her laughter. Ruby acting like this towards a boy?! It was a first! And, more importantly, A RIOT!

 **"I thought I'd never see you again Naruto!"**

 **Brows were raised even higher as Naruto wrapped his arms around the much smaller girl.**

 **"Shh it's ok Ruby. That...thing will never hurt us again!"**

 **Ruby looked up with a hopeful look shining in her gray eyes,**

"Silver," Ruby's voice corrected.

 **"You killed it?"**

 **Naruto looked away, "No. I was barely able to get away from it with my life."**

Once again Kakashi found himself truly flabbergasted at the thought that his student was so worked up. He found himself truly fearing for the inhabitants of Beacon academy if Naruto Uzumaki himself would not be able to defeat the enemy.

 **Before the soap opera like situation could progress any further Yang shoved her way in between the two before asking the question that was on everyone's mind.**

 **"Ok what the hell are you two talking about!? And how the heck do you know his guy Ruby!?"**

 **Ruby just grinned and appeared by Naruto's side, "This is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto this is my sister Yang."**

"It appears that the older sister is more similar to a mother hen." The quip came from the place that none had expected. All eyes turned towards Ren, who had a small teasing smile on his face as he looked at Yang. The girl herself looked affronted. She wished to say something, but at the same time she was too proud of Ren to say anything.

Ruby's head poked out from her hood as she looked at the exchange in awe. She appeared in front of the sloth-like boy before looking at him, determination sparking in her eyes. "Teach me your ways."

The boy in question blinked before schooling his own expression. "First you must go sit back down. It shall teach you patience, which you will need in order to prep for the time to strike." Ruby nodded her head enthusiastically before, once more, appearing in a flurry of petals in her original position.

 **Naruto chuckled as he nervously waved at his fellow blonde who was inspecting him like a lioness would an unfamiliar creature. He had enough experience with busty blondes to know not to make them angry. That usually lead to a painful beating.**

 **'Jeez she's almost as big as Tsunade Baa-chan (Granny Tsunade) and she's like half her age!'**

A lewd grin spread across Yang's face as she turned towards the sitting boy. "You like what you see, big boy?" Her voice came out seductive as she flashed her eyes demurely and pulled her arms over her head, giving a rather generous display.

"Have some decency, Yang!" The call from the Schnee was not able to detract from Naruto's reaction in the slightest.

The boy's face turned as red as Pyrrha's hair as he buried his head into his hands. Next to him, Kakashi giggled perversely as his student lamented his terrible luck.

 **Before Naruto could question what the girl was eating to grow such a...healthy body Kurama made himself known by hopping his way up to Naruto's shoulders where he wrapped himself around the blonde's neck.**

 **'Kit, kami must love you or something. I mean you've pretty much spent your whole life living every pervert's dream, surrounded by busty and hot females.'**

 **Naruto would have normally had a snarky comment to reply back with, but he could find none. The fox was right. His stalker since childhood, Hinata, had blossomed into a beautiful young woman with a pair that could give Tsunade a run for her money. Then there was Tsunade herself who boasted possibly the largest pair in all of the Elemental Nations. Both Anko and Kurenai were equally beautiful and as equally gifted in the chest area. Not to mention Shion the priestess who wanted him to father her children. Of course, who could forget the Mizukage (Water Shadow), Mei Terumi, who had no shame in flirting with him whenever a chance arose.**

Jaune Arc was the one who whistled this time. The young man was not much of a pervert, but even he had to admit that each and every one of those women were beautiful. Next to him he missed Pyrrha pouting, her bottom lip protruding out slightly as she watched the object of her affections look at the women on the screen.

 **Naruto didn't know whether to cry in frustration or joy. On one hand, he had tried his hardest to not fall to the dark side and become a pervert like every male role model in his life, but it seemed Kami had other plans or just enjoyed tempting him.**

The females of Remnant all looked at the Uzumaki with respect in their gazes, though they did pity him for the divine being seeming out to corrupt him. Yang even got out of her display of her assets at that.

 **Resigned to his fate Naruto just stuck out his hand in greeting, "Nice to meet you Yang."**

 **Not even bothering to reply to the greeting the blonde did a total 180 and was instantly invading his personal space bubble and gushing over the cuteness of Kurama. The fox himself was enjoying the attention, only serving to boost his already massive ego.**

Within his mind Naruto, could hear the fox cackling in delight. Who would have guessed that a large concentration of pure chakra could even be a pervert? It was then that Naruto realized that the thought was entirely moot, his mind drawing back to Matatabi and how much of a shameless flirt the two-tailed cat could be.

Bijuu could be perverts just as easily as humans could be. Granted Naruto _knew_ that none of them came close to his late sensei. Jiraiya had been a pervert above all other perverts, a self-proclaimed super pervert and he would be remembered as such. It was his legacy and his spirit would be feared in the hot-springs around Hi no Kuni for generations to come.

 **"Um...I'd like it if you didn't do that. Stupid fox already has a big enough ego."**

 **"How could such a cute little thing have an ego?" Yang cooed in a baby like voice while cradling Kurama in her arms.**

 **The fox was more than enjoying the situation he had found himself in, 'Kit...I now understand why Jiraiya was a pervert.'**

 **Naruto could only sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration, though on the other hand looking at his fellow blonde he really couldn't blame the fox. Even he had to admit that the term "blonde bombshell" fit Yang almost to the letter and if the metallic bands on her wrist and the smell of gunpowder were anything to go by, the bombshell part may just be literal.**

Yang blinked at the analysis, her gusto returning to her in full force. Naruto had just made a pun regarding her and her appearance. She was beginning to like him more and more already.

 **With the excitement over, the hall descended back into the chatter of friends and the group was left to their own devices without having to worry about having the whole freshman class' eyes on them. Of course, both Yang and Naruto were the type of people who could care less what other people thought of them and Ruby wasn't focusing on the background people enough to care.**

 **As the group of three (plus one fox) chatted and got to know each other, Yang found herself actually enjoying the company of her fellow blonde. Far too often would guys chase after her and her sister and spend that time simply ogling them like creeps. She knew her outfit didn't exactly help, but not only was it easy to move in it also gave her an advantage over those perverts who would stare at her chest in the middle of a battle.**

"Ah, the old Anko Mitarashi skimpy clothing technique, eh?" Kakashi grinned at that. The oldest of the group had spent a great deal of time with Konoha's resident snake mistress. She had been only two years his junior, but had graduated over half a decade later than him from the academy, as he had graduated at six.

Naruto shivered at the mention of the 'scary snake lady'. Even after all this time, after all these years, he still found her to be one of the most terrifying individuals in all of Konoha. Inquisitive eyebrows raised from the Remnant crowd at the mention of this individual, but none asked. They had seen Naruto's initial reaction and truth be told they were perfectly fine without knowing.

 **Naruto was different and instead looked her straight in the eyes which, with his piercing blue eyes, unnerved her a little bit. It was like he could pierce straight through her without even trying. What made her a little more on edge was how comfortable she was with the guy.**

 **Not even a few minutes with the blonde and she was joking with and teasing him, which she found incredibly fun to do because of how he reacted. Seeing the somewhat cocky blonde turn into a blushing stuttering mess was just hilarious. Sure she was known for teasing people, but to be this comfortable with someone so fast? It made her a little worried. You didn't see and do the things she had by trusting everyone you met.**

Yang couldn't help but agree with her other's sentiment. From the short amount of interaction that she had already had with Naruto she could easily see herself becoming attached. Not only that but he had been so much fun to tease! He had been harder to bait than most people she knew, but once she knew what cards to play even he was easy to reduce to a stuttering mess.

 **Before their little get together could continue a certain princess in white stomped her way to them and made her presence known by pointing her finger at Ruby whilst yelling, "You!"**

 **Ruby reflexively jumped into her sister's arms and cried, "Oh god! She's back!"**

 **The girl in white merely continued on her rant, "You're lucky you didn't blow us right off the cliff!"**

"Yeah," Blake began, interrupting her own reading in order to contribute to the banter. "That would have been such a crying shame." The sarcasm in the cat faunus' voice was easily apparent and Weiss could only glare halfheartedly at her friend. She had become closer with Blake after the various escapades that they had gone on.

Instead of getting angry and fuming, like she was well known for, the white themed girl simply slapped Blake lightly on the top of the head, as if chastising a child. "Quite you," the heiress stated, sounding like she was scolding a child. "Get on with reading, your skills at that are far superior than your ability to attempt banter."

As she finished she cocked her head to the side, haughtily. Blake's mouth, and the mouths of several others hanging wide open in shock. Weiss Schnee had just made a joke and it had been good!

Only once she had snapped out of her stupor was Blake able to continue.

 **Yang looked at her sister who was still in her arms in surprise, "Oh god you really did explode."**

 **"I told you it was an accident!" Ruby exclaimed in an attempt to defend herself.**

 **"To be fair you were kinda shaking those vials of Dust around, so you are also to blame," Naruto butted in.**

 **Ruby gave Naruto a grateful smile, while the princess gave him a dirty look he was all too familiar with.**

Naruto, once again, shot Ruby a thumbs up with his wrapped arm. The girl sent him a slight smile as she felt it "safe" outside of her hood again. It was always heart-warming to the young girl that she could make such good friends. People that would stand up for her like this were people that she wanted to surround herself with.

Even if it was probably not permanent, residing within this world instead of her own, Ruby was glad that she got to meet Naruto. It might not be the same one as in this story, but she could easily tell that they were almost identical in personality.

 **'Hey Kurama you think she's part Uchiha or something? I mean only an Uchiha can sneer like that.'**

 **'You got a good point there kit. But Uchiha's are also known for the love of black sooo,' Kurama said as he pointed out Weiss choice in clothing color.**

Kakashi snickered at the comparison. "A woman out for Sasuke's heart huh?" He spoke quietly, only getting the attention of Naruto and both of them chuckled at the comparison. "I don't know," the boy drawled out lazily, similarly to how his sensei spoke on occasion. "I haven't seen her talking about avenging her family, bringing death and ruin onto her brother yet."

As Naruto finished he shifted his voice to a more arrogant tone and crossed his arms. "Now I must perfect my katon techniques as well as my spooky eyes. After that you better watch out." Once again he and Kakashi laughed at the expense of their estranged teammate.

It wasn't so much that Naruto disliked Sasuke, no he loved his brother, but past mistakes were in the past and could, therefore, be made fun of. He could imagine the conversations that he and Sasuke would have about this when they were old men, sitting around and talking about the 'good ole' days'. He was sure that Sasuke's past would be a pretty big point of interest when they got to be that old.  
 **  
"And just who the heck are you?"**

 **Taking a page out of one his teacher's books Naruto gave the girl a lazy look and drawled out, "I'm sorry did you say something princess?"**

All eyes turned towards Naruto and Kakashi, the later having opened up his orange book and the younger placing his hands atop his and whistling indiscriminately. No one bought the act for a second, but no one truthfully cared.

 **While the girl was turning red from anger and not so silently fuming, both Yang and Ruby were just looking at the interaction between the two with barely surprised giggles.**

 **"I said who the heck are you!?" The girl all but screamed.**

 **Naruto just grinned lazily and somehow managed to smile with his eyes, "Isn't it polite to give your name before asking someone else's?"**

Even though this currently was not happening to the real her, Weiss felt her eyebrow still began to twitch. She understood that when she first came to Beacon that she had a _slight_ attitude problem, but dealing with Naruto would have still made her angry to this day. Deciding to just let it go she let out a disgruntled sigh.

It truthfully was not worth it.

 **That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Yang was on the floor rolling in laughter while Ruby was not fairing much better, hands on her knees as her shoulders shook from laughing. Even those within hearing distance of the group were either laughing or grinning when they saw how well the white themed girl seemed to be imitating a tomato.**

 **'Kit...you're evil...and I'm so proud!'**

Jaune simply looked over at Naruto. He was kind of miffed that he appeared to not be present so far, but he had to think that Naruto was making a far stronger impression than he upon first arriving to Beacon. The guy hadn't even used a single cheesy pick up line yet! It was honestly kind of saddening.

 **Barely stopping herself from strangling the infuriating blonde in front of her she seethed out, "My name is Weiss Schnee."**

 **Around them some jaws dropped hearing the name Schnee. Evidently Naruto knew the name as well because his own jaw dropped, "As in the Schnee Dust company!?"**

 **The now named Weiss crossed her arms and gained back her arrogance, "That's right my father is the owner of the largest Dust company in all of Vale."**

 **Naruto did a complete 180 and went back to his uncaring posture from before, "Wow then you really should've know better than to be shaking vials of Dust like a rattle."**

This time Kakashi couldn't keep up the façade and almost fell off the couch he was laughing so hard. So were most of the Beacon students.

"Stop laughing!" Weiss snapped, red-faced and feeling mortified.

 **The moment was lost on the rest in attendance as they simply sat back, watching in awkward silence.**

 **Almost instantly the laughter came back even stronger than before as Yang gasped in an attempt to get some much need air into her lungs, Ruby equally out of breath. Weiss on the other hand let loose a scream of frustration and threw her arms in the air.**

 **"UGH! YOU ARE SO INFURIATING!"**

 **As Weiss stamped away in anger Naruto just chuckled as Yang leaned on him, still trying to regain her breath, "Foxy, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship."**

 **As the crowd began to quiet down a man dressed in an all green suit with silver hair and glasses walked his way before the microphone, aided by a metallic walking cane of some sort. This was the head of Beacon Academy, Ozpin.**

The screen lit up for the benefit of Naruto and Kakashi. The man on the screen looked similar to Kakashi, but his hair was down and he seemed to have an affinity for the color green. "Not a bad looker" the white-haired man stated rather lazily.

 **"I will...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you are finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people...but I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."**

Once again Kakashi frowned. This was mediocre at best. If this man truly wished to inspire his students he needed to put them to the test, put them in a situation that could kill them. They would need to understand the importance of a life, the importance of what it costs when a life is taken away.

 **Without a word more Ozpin began to walk away, not even sparing a glance at the crowd of his newest students.**

 **Equal amounts of shock, anger, and denial ran through the teens in the crowd after Ozpin's rather bleak speech. Yang huffed in anger at the man's words, while Ruby looked down in contemplation. Naruto merely stood there with his arms crossed.**

 **'Great, another Kakashi. Wonder if he has some porn stashed away like the scarecrow too,' Naruto thought to himself.**

At that, most of the females turned towards Kakashi in order to glare at him. "Is that what you're reading," Weiss began rather angrily. "Some garbage smut novels? Are you that much of a pervert?"

"He is. Trust me, you're talking to a guy who reads porn in front of children...in public... before sticking his fingers up their butt. After that, it hurt to use the bathroom for three days! It was horrible!" Naruto shuddered.

At that, most of the women all unleashed Bijuu-level murderous intent focused solely on the man as they continued to glare at him, the man beginning to break out in a light sweat similar to when Kurenai used to do the same. He honestly didn't think that he would be on the receiving end of a glare this strong again in his life. Kakashi was just glad they didn't have any weapons on hand at the moment!

 **A blonde haired woman wearing glasses and a cape of some sort strode up the microphone to take Ozpin's place, "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."**

 **Sitting atop the windowsill with one leg dangling outside, Naruto allowed the crisp night air to brush against his face, his blonde locks rustling in the wind while his cerulean orbs stared at the moon that now hung in the starry night sky.**

 **Going over today's events he had to chuckle at the parallels in this new life of his. Without even opening one of his eyes Kurama spoke through their mental connection, 'Parallels there may be, but remember kit, there will also be many differences. You can not allow your past to haunt you any longer, lest you become like that one eyed sensei of yours.'**

This was all new to everyone present. Naruto's eyes narrowed in thought. This world was different from his own, yet he seemed to obtain all memories of his past life, at least until a certain point. He still had his arm, so he doubted that he had confronted Sasuke. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure if he had participated in the fourth shinobi war in this timeline.

Apparently, during his time in the life of his alternate self in the story, something had changed and he had ended up in the very different world of Remnant. He had traveled dimensions during his battle with Kaguya and it wouldn't be that surprising if he had been stuck in one.

 **Away from his friends, stranded in a different world. The thought made him shudder, it was not something that he would desire to live. If his past was going to haunt him in this life as Kurama said, then it was obvious that he must have made some mistake. A mistake that had cost him dearly.**

 **Naruto only offered a bittersweet smile as he absentmindedly allowed his fingers to softly stroke Kurama's fur. Looking back now it was funny how much things had changed. Almost a year or so ago and the fox that was curled up in his lap had wanted nothing more than to tear him to bloody bits and break out of the seal that kept him in Naruto. Now? Well Naruto had no idea how he would've survived this long without Kurama's help.**

 **Then there was Naruto himself. Looking back he could've slapped himself. Admittedly he really hadn't changed all that much. He was still pretty hyper and knuckleheaded, but the difference now was that he had balanced out. Thanks to Kurama's help and his own determination he had been able to improve in almost every area by leaps and bounds.**

Naruto couldn't help but snort. He considered himself to be rather humble, but he was still proud when it came to his abilities in a fight. He had brought an end to war during his time and he had defeated a goddess. No matter how strong training with Kurama had made him, he doubted it would be as impressive as he and Sasuke teaming up against Madara and then Kaguya.

 **Naruto was knocked out of his little reverie when he felt the presence of Ruby next to him, "Penny for your thoughts?"**

 **The blonde turned and took in Ruby's pajamas with a smile. While in her normal clothes the girl looked ready to go into battle, or a Halloween party, however in her pink pajama bottoms and black tank top, Ruby actually looked her age.**

 **Ruby also took in Naruto's own sleep wear with a minor blush. The white tank top with some sort of leaf like symbol that hung off his form allowed his well muscled arms to be seen quite easily. Likewise the navy blue gym shorts with that red swirl of his did a good job of showing off his equally well-toned legs.**

 **Ruby had to blush as, with the moon in the background and blonde hair swaying gently in the breeze, Naruto looked quite attractive.**

Once again Ruby was gone. All people present had seen her face to darken past the shade of red that her hair currently was and then jump inside of her cloak once more. She fell out of her chair, landing on the ground and rolling herself up as if she was in a blanket. She did not think of boys that way! She just wanted to hide until all of this blew over.

Yang simply bit her lip as she felt a smile tug at her lips. She _could_ tease Ruby over this, but the girl was already distraught enough. Instead she turned her attention to her fellow blonde on the couch.

"Who would've guessed that you would have been able to give my sister such naughty thoughts?" the girl began, placing her hand to her lips as if she was scandalized. "I can't _wait_ to see you in clothing similar."

A light dust painted Naruto's cheeks, but he refused to fall victim to this once again! Holding his ground he quirked an eyebrow at Yang before giving out a short taunt. "Is that all you've got? I've received worse from my grandmother and she's ancient."

Kakashi's eyes widened at that declaration. If Tsunade ever caught word of Naruto saying that he was sure that she would put him through a mountain or two and that would just be her warm up! He put the pen in his hand down, not even he would condemn his student to a fate such as that.

Yang Xiao-Long lightly glared at Naruto. She would have the last laugh! She swore it upon her title of greatest teaser at Beacon academy!

 **"Just thinking about home."**

 **"Where are you from?" Ruby asked curiously. She admittedly didn't know much about her new blonde friend, which was something she wanted to remedy.**

 **Naruto just turned his gaze back to the moon. He had spent enough time here on Remnant to have come up with a back story which was as close to the truth as he could get without having to tell everyone the complete truth.**

 **"It was a village out in the middle of nowhere. It was my people's attempt at starting up another city like Vale. It had actually been around for awhile and thanks to the forests that surrounded it, it was named Konohagakure no Sato."**

Blake frowned as she read that. She had never expected the boisterous blonde over there to have any sort of tragic backstory. True, it always made a book better to read about a reluctant hero in her mind, but it was different this time.

After all the tragic hero that this book was written about was not even ten feet away from her, sitting on the couch and having to listen to this. She was sure that things had turned out differently for him in actuality instead of fiction, after all he wasn't on Remnant now, but it still didn't make it much different for her.

The way that Naruto held himself truly did show experience beyond his years. She could only assume the boy was seventeen or eighteen at the moment and it was obvious from the way that the held himself that he had experience that few did. He looked similar to the really old war veterans in the white fang that she had grown up around. Faunus that had experienced the great war on the frontlines and lived to tell about it.

 **Before Ruby could question exactly what the name meant and what language it was in, a slightly surprised yet subdued voice made its way into their conversation.**

 **"The Village Hidden in the Leaves."**

 **Both Naruto and Ruby turned their eyes to see the black haired girl who had helped out Ruby earlier in the day making her way to them, book in hand.**

 **Naruto raised his brow and nodded, surprised that someone actually knew the language, "Yea that's spot on actually. I'm surprised someone even knows that language still."**

 **The raven haired teen offered her brow raise, "Same can be said for you. For all intents and purposes it's a dead language."**

It was then that Naruto turned towards Blake. "You speak Japanese?" The girl simply shook her head in response. She didn't; a skill that must have been privy to the version of her in only this book.

 **Naruto just smiled, "My village actually preferred it, made names and stuff sound a lot cooler. By the way I'm Uzumaki Naruto."**

 **"Blake. And your name...your parents really liked ramen huh?"**

 **Naruto childishly pouted, "Damnit that's not what my name means!"**

 **Ruby giggled at Naruto's pout before asking, "So what does it really mean then?"**

 **The blonde just puffed out his chest and proudly declared, "Maelstrom."**

 **Blake chose to interject, "So your full name means 'Maelstrom Spiral' then?"**

"To think you were named after a protagonist in one of Jiraiya-sama's novels and you cannot even appreciate his literature."

Naruto turned towards his sensei, a neutral mask on his face. It was almost as if his look was begging the question of 'are you kidding me'. "You're just mad that pervy-sage only wrote ONE decent novel in his life. You can continue to believe that the trash you read is good, but it still doesn't have a movie of it, and you will never star in it if it does."

The man's eyebrows twitched erratically. If his student was still weaker than him he would definitely give him the what for. Instead a smirk came to his face. Perhaps when they returned and he became Hokage he could find a suitable punishment. Kakashi's hands rubbed together ominously as he thought about the D-rank missions that he could assign to his young protégé.

 **Naruto just grinned cockily, "You got it!"**

 **Yang suddenly appeared behind Naruto, scaring him enough to almost make him lose his balance and fall out the window. Thankfully she had also chosen to grab his whiskered cheeks and began tugging at them, "I don't know, I think I'll just stick with calling you Foxy."**

 **With Yang still painfully tugging at his cheeks, Naruto began to cry dramatically, "Ruby help! Get your crazy sister off me!"**

"There's no helping him." Ruby's voice came from under her cloak, the girl still hiding for the time being. She feared for her friend, but at the moment, she feared for herself even more. If she got involved with this battle than she would only be collateral damage.

 **"Who you calling crazy Mr!?" Yang yelled as she began to tug at Naruto's cheeks even harder, laughing maniacally all the while.**

"Why's the "Mister" part in its abrivation form?" Blake wondered.

"Lazy author?" Weiss guessed.

 **Ruby began to laugh as she watched her sister torture their new friend, while even the normally cool Blake cracked a grin as she watched the two blondes interact.**

 **"SAY IT! SAY UNCLE!"**

 **"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"**

 **"YOU WANNA BET FOXY!?"**

 **"OW OW OW OW! DAMNIT YANG THAT HURTS!"**

 **"SAY IT!"**

 **"NEVER!"**

 **"SHUT THE HELL UP! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP!"**

 **Silence.**

"It appears that the creature from the white lagoon will be making her second appearance."

Weiss shot a glare at Blake as she cracked a smile and Yang giggled at the dark-haired girl's joke. "You laugh now, but just you wait, Blake. Vengeance will be mine!"

Even though the line had been spoken in jest, both Kakashi and Naruto's eyes widened dramatically. The boy rose a shaky finger, remembering his earlier conversation with his sensei, as it slowly pointed at Weiss. "You wouldn't happen to know any fire-based techniques, would you?"

The girl only quirked an eyebrow at the question as she nodded. "I specialize in all types of dust; fire is something that I use on occasion."

Both men broke into fits of laughter as Naruto struggled for air. "Close enough!" was all he was able to get out between gasps for air.

None knew what was going on, but all let the oddity slide.

 **Ruby stared at the poor bastard who had told both Naruto and Yang to shut up with wide eyes. This was not gonna end well...for the guy at least. Quietly she wondered what kind of flowers he liked.**

 **Both Naruto and Yang slowly turned their heads to face the brave (read: foolish) soul who would dare interrupt them.**

 **For a moment both parties stared directly at each other, the nameless and random teen defiantly glaring straight back at the pair of blondes. However when Yang slowly stepped off of Naruto's back and cracked her knuckles, he began to sweat. When Naruto began to crack his neck, the glare dropped off his face.**

 **With fearful eyes he watched as the blonde duo stalked their way over to the his place on the floor, people quickly clearing the way so as not to get in between the cold fury of Naruto and Yang and their prey.**

 **That night screams of pain echoed throughout the school grounds for ten minutes straight before all was quiet.**

Weiss sent a triumphant smirk towards the B in team RWBY as the section of the chapter finished. "It appears that it wasn't myself after all, just some poor soul who was not me."

A hum escaped the faunus' lips as she thought over the quandary. It appeared that subtle differences such as this one would be present in the story. In the original timeline, it had been Weiss who had interrupted the conversation between Ruby, Yang, and herself. Perhaps this was destiny's way of letting Weiss live.

If Weiss _had_ engaged against Naruto and Yang, well the dark-haired girl could only shiver at the thought. Regardless of their rather awkward past fights, Blake rather liked Weiss. It would be kind of hard to enjoy the company of a girl if she was not whole.

* * *

 **"AH! Now that was a good night's sleep!" Yang declared as she stretched, drawing the eyes of every teen male in the room.**

 **Naruto grinned as he stretched as well, "Couldn't agree more Yang! Slept like a log."**

 **Ruby could only sweat drop upon seeing the devious grin the two shared. Maybe introducing them to each other was a bad idea.**

Naruto couldn't help but shrug at the thought. He was sure that he and Yang would have gotten in plenty of trouble together if they had attended the academy, or, god forbid, been on the same team. It was a fair judgement call from the girl, but he knew what was coming next as soon as he witnessed the proverbial gleam in Yang's eye.

"Awwww...is sister embarrassed by little ol' me?"

Yang was attempting to provoke something but all that the group was able to see was a slight shifting in the cloak. The smirk was still on her sister's face and Ruby knew it.

 **Naruto collected his stuff before walking out of the hall, Yang, Ruby, and surprisingly Blake not too far behind.**

 **As the group made their way to the locker rooms where their battle clothes and weapons were Naruto decided spark up a conversation, not one for silences, "So you guys ready for whatever our initiation is today?"**

 **Ruby was bouncing around like a rabbit out of excitement in response, "Oh my gosh! Today's the day! We're gonna become Hunters and Huntresses! THIS IS SO EXCITING!"**

 **Naruto chuckled at the girl's exuberance while Yang shook her head at her sister's hyperactiveness, "You bet your butt we are Foxy!" Winking at her fellow blonde she continued, "Just don't get left behind ok?"**

 **Naruto laughed as petted a still sleeping Kurama, "Psh. Speak for yourself. I got this test in the bag, -ttebayo!"**

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the taunt that Yang had given, even if it had not been towards him. He was not exactly sure how strong people from Remnant were, but he had a hard time believing that any of them could come close to where he was at the moment.

If he had been able to manifest Kurama in that life he was sure that he was plenty powerful there as well. As far as he was concerned Yang had it backwards. She should be making sure that _she_ could keep up with _him_.

 **Blake raised an eyebrow at the verbal tic before turning curious eyes at the fox kit wrapped around Naruto's neck. She had seen the fox before, but seeing as it had spent most of the time sleeping she had passed it off as nothing of importance. Now however, with them no doubt heading into combat, she raised a question, "Naruto, what about your pet? Is it a good idea to bring it along?"**

 **The fox seemed to have heard her and in response opened its eyes before glaring at her and growling. While Kurama usually appeared to be sleeping he was always keeping his senses out, making sure to keep him and Naruto aware of anything and everything around them. As such he had heard Blake's question and was none too happy at being called a pet.**

 **'She better watch it! I am no pet! I am the great Kyuubi no Kitsune (Nine Tailed Fox)! Strongest of the Bijuu (Tailed Beasts) and I could easily crush her underneath my paw!'**

"How big is the fox supposed to be?"

The question came from Ren as he leaned forward, opening his eyes in the process. It was a fair question. The creature described so far was no larger than an average fox and only possessed one tail. Its size was an adjustable factor in his mind.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as he thought about it. "Probably about the size of a small mountain. He was kinda smaller than that for a while, but now he is a little bit larger than the Hokage monument back home."

Ren simply blinked a couple of times before nodding his head and leaning back in his chair. He didn't have the energy to think too much about this.

 **Blake was mildly surprised to see twin crimson orbs bore into her own amber eyes, clearly expressing just how angry the fox was.**

 **The blue eyed teen turned to face Blake, "Uh I'd apologize. Kurama here doesn't like to be called a pet."**

 **Blake raised an eyebrow wondering just what kind of fox this Kurama was. She had never seen a fox or any animal with such unique red eyes, or even fur of that color. The fox also seemed to be extremely intelligent, having perfectly understood what she had said.**

 **"Uh...sorry Kurama?"**

" _Damn right she is. I have killed far stronger and more intelligent life-forms for far less than that."_ Naruto simply rolled his eyes at Kurama's idle threats. He and the fox both knew that Kurama was far too lazy to put in the effort to kill anything now a day. He was just being prideful like always.

 **The small fox looked to have actually scoffed, further surprising Blake and the others, before resuming his position as Naruto's scarf.**

 **'Stupid cats. Think they're so amazing,' Kurama huffed.**

 **Naruto sweat dropped at his friend's comment, "Well that's probably as good as you're gonna get. He's pretty stubborn when he wants to be."**

 **Blake decided to voice her question as she kept looking at Kurama in curiosity, "What kind of fox is he? He's pretty smart and doesn't look like any fox I've seen."**

 **Naruto shrugged, "He was sort of an experiment my village was doing. They wanted to see how Aura affected animals and so as a small kit he was injected with doses of mine, which is why we're so close. That's also why I know he can take care of himself, he has his own Semblance."**

"Aura? Semblance?" The two words were spoken separately, questions in the mind of both student and Sensei. It was Pyrrha who took up the role of instructor this time. "Our Aura is a power that manifests from our souls. It is attributed to a physical shield that blocks us from harm and also helps us heal. The bodies of humans and faunus that have their aura awakened are naturally stronger than average people.

Our Semblances are abilities that manifest from our aura. A unique ability that everyone with aura possesses. It is typically unique between people and manifests from the individual's personality. For example, when you saw Ruby move so quickly, disappearing in a flurry of rose petals, you saw her semblance. That ability is entirely unique to her."

Naruto simply hummed as Pyrrha finished her explanation, offering the girl a small smile in return. "Thanks." The one word conveyed a great message between the two of them as Pyrrha instantly returned his smile.

"If you don't use Aura then what do you use?" Pyrrha had been slightly nervous about asking, figuring that it might be considered personal, but the boy only shrugged his shoulders and held out his hand, a blue ball of spiraling energy quickly forming in it. "It's called chakra and I'm sure that we will get to see it in action throughout the story."

 **Kurama mentally grinned, 'My, my kit that was a pretty good lie. Seems like you really are becoming a true shinobi.'**

 **Naruto just shrugged. Just because he kind of trusted Ruby, Yang, and Blake didn't mean he was gonna just spill his whole life story to them. He had been stabbed far too many times in the back to be that trusting anymore. Besides it wasn't like they'd believe him if he told them that Kurama was actually just a physical manifestation of energy that had been sealed inside of him by his parents and Death when he was only a few minutes old. Or that Kurama was actually several stories tall and so powerful that with just a flick of his tail he could crumble mountains.**

Blake found herself pausing as she read. From what she had been able to gather, from the conversations in the story and the ones between her and the shinobi on the couch, the place that they came from wasn't exactly friendly. She couldn't help but wonder if Naruto had been subjugated to treatment similar to the faunus for some reason or another.

With the way that he had described the way he had been back stabbed on several occasions the idea certainly had merit. She wouldn't bring it up, but she had already begun to think that the two of them might have more in common than she thought.

After all, having a Beast as terrifying as Kurama sealed inside him by death itself could easily lead to the thought process that Konohagakure no Sato might not be such a hospitable place.

 **Yeah he'd be locked up in the loony boon faster than his father's Hiraishin no jutsu (Flying Thunder God technique).**

 **Both Yang and Ruby shrugged at Naruto's explanation, their family had a dog who also acted as a partner on some missions so Naruto having a fox who could do the same wasn't that weird to them.**

 **As the group of four plus one fox finally reached the locker room they separated to head to their lockers and get changed. Naruto had the foresight to get dressed away from the girls, knowing what happened to guys who tried to peek on women who knew how to fight and had sharp pointy things on hand.**

"And that, Kakashi, is why I never listened to any advice that Jiraiya gave me regarding anything other than training." The man only nodded his head sagely in response. He might have been a disciple of Jiraiya, but not even he was foolish enough to take up the practices of the man he revered so highly.

 **Finally dressed in his clothing and making sure that his pouches were full of kunai and that he had his main weapon sealed into the scroll attached to his belt, Naruto began to make his way out of the locker rooms. On the way out he managed to catch the tail end of Weiss asking someone to be her partner for the exam.**

 **Wondering who was apparently so good that the princess was asking them to be her partner Naruto peeked over and was shocked.**

 **Standing there with a small smile on her beautifully unmarried face was a girl so beautiful he was sure his jaw had just hit the ground.**

 **Noticing the dumb look on his container's face Kurama turned to look at the girl only to have his eyes bug out, 'Kit, I know I'm always teasing you, but...damn! Now I see why your dad liked red-head so much!'**

 **And Kurama wasn't wrong. With hair as red as blood tied into a ponytail and garbed in bronze looking armor and a battle skirt with boots, the girl looked as dangerous as she was beautiful. Naruto was able to catch what Weiss said about the girl. Apparently she was so good that she was the undefeated champ of some tournament for three years and had even earned the moniker of "The Invincible Girl".**

Pyrrha had known where this was going before it had even said her name. She may have been slightly prepared, but that didn't stop her face from glowing brightly. She desired to take a page out of Ruby's book and hide somewhere, but she knew that she couldn't.

In similarity to Pyrrha's face, Naruto's was rather red as well. He began to massage his temples as he looked at the ground, not being able to meet his sensei's face at the moment. He was not sure he desired to see what was there.

 **'It's always the red heads,' Naruto lamented to himself.**

 **Unfortunately for him Naruto knew very well just how he was around such women. Confident, strong, yet gentle and understanding. And the red hair? Yeah he'd be lucky if he could throw a kunai straight with her around. He really had inherited his father's love of red-heads.**

"It appears that my student has become quite the ladies man."

If Jiraiya had been present he would have been proud to see how well Kakashi could move his eyebrows. Naruto didn't raise his head and Pyrrha did not either. Both were just ready for this part of the book to be over as fast as possible.

 **Hoping that Kami was on his side and that he wouldn't have to be around her for too long for the sake of his dignity, Naruto made his way out to join Ruby and Yang.**

 **Had he looked back once more he would have seen the red head ignore Weiss in favor of turning to look at his retreating form, 'Hmm it's that blonde guy. His name was Naruto I think. He's a little odd.' Smiling to herself she recalled his entrance at the freshman speech, 'And funny too.'**

Naruto moaned in embarrassment at that as his and Phyrrha's blushes worsened.

* * *

As Blake once more brought up the line break Jaune Arc felt completely devastated. "Where the heck am I?! This is the third scene I was supposed to be in, and I couldn't even be there to give Weiss the pickup line that began to win her heart!"

Naruto picked his head up as he eyed the white themed girl curiously. Instead of agreeing, her face turned red not in embarrassment but in anger. "Don't spread such lies, Jaune! Don't let these people think anything of the sort!"

As she finished, Naruto stood and walked towards the other couch, sitting a couple of spaces away from Ren and Nora. He subtly noticed Pyrrha scoot towards the middle and he also saw the small smile forming on her face. Regardless, he did not want the girl to feel anymore awkward than she already did.

 **The current gathering of students consisting of a grinning Naruto, a hyperactive Ruby, a cocky Yang, calm Blake, haughty Weiss, an odd girl with short orange hair bugging a teen with long raven black hair, a serene red head, and both Ozpin and his assistant Glynda, stood at the edge of cliff, below which stretched miles upon miles of wild untamed forest.**

 **Taking note that everyone who needed to be there was there, Ozpin began after taking a sip from his coffee cup, "For years you have trained to be warriors and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."**

"It's official," Yang said as if she was stating fact. "Vomit boy isn't at Beacon." All eyes turned towards Jaune as he hung his head, having already come to the same conclusion. He would not be relevant in this story and it appeared that Naruto might be taking his place.

 **Glynda decided to step in and with some sort of tablet in hand continued for Ozpin, "Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates...today."**

 **Naruto raised an eyebrow at the mention of teammates.**

 **'Jeez can this get anymore like Konoha?'**

Kakashi only scoffed at the declaration. He had put his student through hell and he was _proud_ of that fact. The initial testing that he had put team seven through was harder than what any other sensei did and he was certain that it had saved all of their lives during the wave mission. He had administered it for a reason.

Implying that this test was going to be anything nearly as bad as what he did was almost insulting. Anything worse could be considered borderline torture.

 **Though he did have to wonder why Ruby looked so down while Yang was giving her an "I told you so" look.**

 **"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin lectured.**

 **Ruby turned to give Naruto a hopeful look, silently asking him if he would be her partner. Naruto guessed that Yang was attempting to get her little sister to meet new people, but he could see that Ruby would be more than comfortable only having a small handful of people she could trust, a sentiment he shared with her. As such he just gave her a smile and shrugged, silently agreeing with her.**

Once more Ruby emerged from her cloak to give the boy a bright smile. She was so glad that in that life, and even in this one to some extent, she had been able to meet such a kind and caring individual. More and more throughout this story she was beginning to learn about Naruto and she was rather glad.

Her friends at Beacon had been rather close knit and to not be able to meet an individual as caring as Naruto kinda sucked. Sure, she had Jaune and she cared deeply for her friend, but Naruto was a unique individual all on his own. She truly felt cheated that she did not get to experience Beacon academy with such a great person.

 **As if to shatter any of Ruby's hopes at being paired with someone she knew Ozpin continued with a small amount of pleasure in his voice, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."**

 **Naruto had to withhold a laugh as he saw Ruby's world begin crumbling down around her. Off to the side the girl with orange hair happily turned to her friend, "See! I told you!"**

 **Not wanting to be interrupted any further Ozpin continued his little speech, "After you've partnered up head to the north end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path or you will die."**

Kakashi hummed in appreciation of this tactic. Perhaps Ozpin wasn't as easy going as he had initially thought. Regardless he would still have to fault this principle of teaching.

These children were going to become protectors of the world and he was sure that Grimm was not the only things that they would be running up against. They should have been pitted against one another or given a human opponent to face in conjunction to the Grimm in order to give them more realistic world experience. At least this was a good start.

 **At hearing that a sudden grim look came across everyone's face. Our favorite blonde protagonist meanwhile had to resist the urge to sweat drop, 'Ok this is getting freaky now. I mean really? Another silver haired teacher preaching the need to walk into a test with the intent to kill.'**

"Mah Mah, don't complain Naruto," Kakashi began as his eyes crinkled up, signifying his usual smile. "I gave you a test worse than this one when you were twelve. This should be a piece of cake for you."

Naruto only glared at his sensei. He wanted to bring up the fact that he still felt phantom pains in his rump from when he had practically been violated the pervert, but he cared far too much for his own image to do so. Regardless, he still owed Kakashi for that one.

 **"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene," taking a sip of coffee Ozpin paused in his speech, allowing the weight of his words to really sink in. After a few seconds he continued, "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item as well as your standing and be graded appropriately. Any questions?"**

 **The group nodded in the negative, everyone already clear on their instructions, simple as they were. Find a partner, get through the forest, grab a relic, and make it back to cliff, hopefully in one piece.**

 **Ozpin nodded, seemingly satisfied with the determination each of his prospective students was showing in the face of the obstacle before them.**

 **"Good. Now, take your positions."**

 **Already having seen the silver launch pads beneath their feet, each student prepared themselves. The first to be launched into the air was the Schnee heiress who merely allowed herself to fly through the air with a bland look.**

Naruto only let out a whistle. That sounded like it could be pretty fun. From the various nostalgic faces in the group he could tell that this had been a good time. Why wouldn't it have been? This is where their teams were chosen, they were bound to be fond of it in some way or another.

At least, excluding Jaune. He just appeared to be getting visibly ill at the memory of the interesting launch devices.

 **One by one each of the students was sent rocketing into the air by the pads beneath them. Soon only Yang, Ruby, and Naruto remained. Before Yang was launched into the air she winked at Naruto before pulling out a pair of sunglasses from...somewhere and with a whoop of joy she too was sent flying.**

The action was mimicked in the room they were residing in. From seemingly nowhere Yang pulled out some shades and put them on before striking a pose. "Forgot I had these."

Naruto laughed boisterously while Blake cupped her face in her hands. It seemed Ruby was equally affected by her sister as she made some sort of strange whining noise as she sat on the ground.

 **Ruby turned and offered a smirk at Naruto before she joined her sister and the others in the air. As the last one left to be launched Naruto looked at both Ozpin and Glynda before offering them a cocky smirk as he rotated his neck, cracking it in the process. He bowed to the two and was launched off into the sky like a bullet.**

 **"YAHOO!"**

 **Ozpin turned and regarded his longtime friend and associate with a raised brow, "He was an...odd one."**

 **Glynda frowned, clearly unhappy with how nonchalant Naruto had seemed, almost like life or death situations were nothing new to him. The other students had looked just as excited to prove themselves, but it was clear they were also weary of the danger that called the forest home.**

 **The blonde did not. He had a look in his eye that she had only seen in veteran Hunters and Huntresses, the look of someone who had spilt blood and fought in battles their life on the line far too many times. It did not sit well with the strict woman and set her on edge.**

Naruto could only shrug. It was a look similar to what most people had in the elemental nations and he really didn't see it as a big deal.

Eyes were, after all, the proverbial window to the soul. You could always tell the life that a person lived by how they carried themselves, but you could tell the battles they fought from the look in their eyes.

He caught Blake eyeing him curiously and sent the girl a small smile. She returned to the book, her cheeks slightly pink at the embarrassment of being caught staring.

 **Wondering just who the blonde was she instantly pulled up the video feed of him on her tablet and pulled up his record next to it.**

 **Naruto laughed to himself as he saw several of the others already begin to descend back towards terra firma. However Naruto wasn't an adept user of Fuuton (Wind Release) for nothing. Calling forth only a small portion of his massive chakra reserves he allowed it to coat his form, creating a streamlined shield of wispy light green chakra. Now far more aerodynamic he pushed only a smaller portion into his feet, propelling him further and faster than the others.**

"You can manipulate the elements with your chakra?" The question came from Weiss as she turned towards Kakashi, who only shrugged in response.

"Sure," the silver-haired man replied. "I'm pretty good with lightning and Naruto is a wind type. It is considered to be one of the harder practices to master with chakra, but it is a staple in most high-level shinobi where we come from."

The girl only nodded, satisfied with the answer.

 **Soon he was naught but a screaming blonde bullet tearing through the air like a knife through wet paper. As he passed the others who had been launched before him he could hear the gasps of shock and one girl in red as she attempted to copy him by using the recoil from her weapon only to slice through a bird in the process.**

 **"BIRDY NO!"**

Naruto nearly died of laughter as Ruby blushed at that memory. She had forgotten about the poor bird that she had hit on entry to the emerald forest.

 **Soon the others began to follow suit, using either their weapons or their Semblance to propel themselves even further into the Emerald Forest. However humans were not meant to fly and eventually gravity began to show itself, bringing them all back down to the earth.**

 **Seeing that he was slowly making his way into the trees and wanting to avoid any injuries or broken limbs he reached into the pouch on his thigh and pulled out two kunai knives. Holding the ninja knives in a reverse grip he allowed his bubble of Wind Natured Chakra to pop, letting the winds slam into him, greatly slowing him down. With his speed slowed down the blonde was able to weave through several of the trees, each time he did so bringing down his speed even more. Eventually Naruto had slowed to a decent enough speed to be able to stab his kunai into a large tree trunk. Curving his legs inwards he swung his body around the tree, carving out a spiral into the trunk as he made his way to the forest floor.**

 **When he was close enough to the ground that he wouldn't break a bone from a fall, he let go of the blades and performed a flip whilst tucking into a ball. As Naruto came even closer to the ground he unfurled himself and like a gymnast landed perfectly on his feet before bowing to the imaginary crowd.**

 **'I'll give it a 9 out of 10,' Kurama snickered.**

 **Naruto blew a raspberry at his fox friend, insulted that he didn't get a perfect score.**

"Truth be told it sounds like you just ripped me off."

The comment came from Ren as he had, once more, sat up and opened his eyes. He looked at the blonde who simply rolled his neck and shrugged. "Eh I would have gone with something flashier anyway. Have to appeal to the imaginary audience dattebayo!"

As the blonde flashed Ren a grin the green-clad teenager couldn't help but let out a short chuckle. It was a similar technique he had used to dismount, but that really didn't matter. He just found it rather funny that his own landing would not have gotten a perfect score from a mountain-sized fox with nine tails.

 **The sound of the bushes rustling put him on high alert. Thinking that he was already going to be attacked by something that wanted him as dinner, he pulled out another kunai knife and with perfect aim tossed it into the bush with the precision and speed that came with his years of experience using the knives.**

 **He was surprised though when, instead of the squelching sound of metal piercing flesh, he heard the metallic ring of steel meeting steel. As the victim of Naruto's paranoid attack emerged from the brush all he could do was face palm while Kurama was near gasping from laughter.**

 **'HAHAHAHA! Kami really loves to see you squirm kit!'**

 **Out from the brush emerged a smiling red haired beauty, round bronze shield and spear in hand.**

"Fuck me." As the words left Naruto's mouth he hung his head, a storm cloud forming over it in an over dramatized way. Pyrrha wasn't faring much better as she placed her head into her hands.

The girl had sort of come to expect this when Jaune had not made an appearance. To be partnered up with Naruto didn't seem so bad, but she could already hear the comments from Yang.

"The boy always did have the devil's own luck," Kakashi said as he attempted to fight off his giggles. Yang busted out in laughter similar to his own as they both continued rioting over the expense of one Naruto Uzumaki.

 **Looking skyward Naruto began to curse out Kami, convinced she had either abandoned him or just enjoyed torturing him.**

 **Resigned to his fate he offered a smile and hand, "Naruto Uzumaki."**

 **The red head returned the smile before attaching her shield to her back and shaking Naruto's offered hand, "Pyrrha Nikos."**

 **Naruto nervously laughed as he rubbed the back of his head, an old nervous habit of his, "Guess that makes us partners huh? By the way sorry for almost...ya know stabbing you with one of my kunai."**

"I'm sure you would've liked to stab Pyrrha with something else as well." Yang was back in full force as neither Pyrrha or Naruto had any sort of rebuttal to the current onslaught of teasing. Ruby's face turned red in a way that put her color scheme to shame, but that wasn't the only response she got.

"Yang! Don't you have any shame?!"

The blonde girl turned towards her blue-eyed teammate and offered the girl a cheeky grin. "If I did I wouldn't be so awesome." She had desire to see what Weiss would say, but Blake cut off the desired reaction.

"Is that what we are calling it now? I didn't think 'awesome' was synonymous with 'annoying'. All my books and I don't have a thesaurus. Such a shame."

As the words left Blake's mouth Yang immediately deflated and Naruto began to laugh heartily. He sent Blake a thumbs up and a motion conveying he wished her to continue. He didn't want Yang to recover prematurely after all.

 **Pyrrha simply offered a kind smile and laughed, "We are indeed and no harm done!" She looked at Naruto who seemed to be unarmed, outside of the the aforementioned kunai, "Do you not have your own weapon?"**

 **Naruto grabbed the scroll that hung from his belt and twirled it on a finger, "I do, but I usually don't use it unless I need to. I can usually handle most opponents just using my...uh...Semblance and kunai."**

 **As he stumbled on his words in the middle of the sentence he began to mentally curse himself, 'Always the damn red heads!'**

"At least you aren't as bad as your father. Before your father and mother were married that man would fall to piece around Kushina with the exception of missions. It was actually quite comical."

Naruto spared Kakashi a glance. Kakashi had been, what, six or seven when his parents started dating? Had it really been that obvious? If so, how had nobody been able to figure out whose son he was? Some of the people his parents had known must have truly been oblivious.

 **Luckily Pyrrha didn't show any signs of her being suspicious or even having caught him falling over his words and nodded her head, "So what is your Semblance then?"**

 **Naruto just winked at the red head, some of his usual bravado making its way back to him, "That my partner is a secret. Though hopefully I won't have to use it anytime soon."**

 **As he said that the sounds of twigs snapping caught both teens' attention and again Naruto began to curse Kami all over again.**

 **Lumbering out of the trees was, unfortunately, not another of the people taking the initiation, but was instead the massive form of bear like beast. Instead of the usual brown fur though, this monster was covered in pitch black fur with a bone white mask covering its face while various pieces of what looked to be bone protruded out from random areas on its towering form.**

 **This was a Creature of Grimm, an Ursa. Judging by its near 8 foot stature and plated form this was an older and more experienced Ursai, an Ursa Major to be exact.**

 **As Naruto drew a pair of kunai and Pyrrha pulled her shield off her back, Naruto could only mutter a single sentence, "Well fuck you too then Kami."**

As the line finished Blake looked up from the book and offered a small smile to the people present in the room. "That is the end of the first chapter. Who would like to read next?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Here...I'll read it." Kakashi said, taking the book.

Naruto let out a fake gasp "Kakashi can read something other than smut?!" he said in a sarcastic half-shock, half-horrified tone, a large smirk on his face.

Kakashi gave Naruto a glare. Naruto was so doing D-ranks as long as the scarecrow was going to be Hokage!

 **The Creatures of Grimm, monstrous and beastly creatures whose sole reason for existence was to bring death to mankind. They did not hunger for meat, vegetation, or any other "normal" food source. In fact, when observed, it seemed like they did not need to eat or drink to survive like any other living creature on Remnant. However this did not mean that they lacked a desire to eat.**

 **The one thing these creatures seemed to crave, to hunger for, was human flesh and blood.**

"Not liking that..." Naruto muttered. And not just from the descriptions of what these Grimm things were like. They reminded him a bit of that Black Zetsu creep with the way they looked according to the images on the screen.

"How do you think we feel having to deal with those things?" Jaune asked.

 **No one on Remnant had any one hundred percent proven idea as to what Grimm were or even how they came to exist. Scientists were not able to properly observe Grimm due to how hard it was to keep even a young one in captivity. What made it even more difficult to study the Grimm was that, upon death, their bodies would fade from existence, leaving not even a hair to be examined.**

Kakashi frowned at that, eyes narrowing.

 **The only concrete facts the people of Remnant knew regarding Grimm were thus: Grimm were drawn to dark emotions such as jealousy, hatred, and greed. The monsters had a fondness for human flesh and they were capable of learning from experience.**

 **Naruto could add something else to that list though.**

The group from Remnant all looked surprised at that. It was Naruto's first encounter with Grimm, far as they could tell. What had he been able to learn at a glance like that when people that had studied Grimm all their lives couldn't figure out anything else?

 **His godfather and mentor, Jiraiya, had been a powerful man, known across the Elemental Countries for his prowess in the art of Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu (Sealing Arts). Jiraiya and his two teammates had earned themselves fame and infamy in their youth, becoming known as the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja).**

"Impressive stuff." Ren nodded.

 **Out of the various skills Jiraiya had passed down to his godson, chief among them was the skill that had earned the now deceased shinobi the title of Gama Sennin (Toad Sage). The skill was legendary even among Naruto's people and was known as Senjutsu (Sage Technique). The technique allowed the user to gather the very energy of Nature herself and blend it into their body, bolstering both their physical and mental prowess to otherwise unachievable heights.**

"...You can do that...?" Jaune asked, awed by that.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, training in it wasn't easy, though."

 **As such the practitioners of Senjutsu were seen as Sages and even when they were not actively using Nature Chakra, even novice Sages were keenly aware of it and those who could use it. As such Naruto was thoroughly shocked when he noticed that the Creatures of Grimm were comprised almost entirely of Nature Chakra.**

"OK...I'm REALLY not liking THAT, AT ALL!" Naruto said, eyes huge.

"What does that mean?" Weiss asked.

"Nothing good..." Naruto muttered, his mind rushing a mile a second, trying to figure out who could do something like that and why.

 **It answered a lot of the questions the people of Remnant had and explained a lot more as well. The reason the body of a Grimm faded upon death was because the Nature Chakra it was made up of was returning back to the planet or moving into the nearby plant and animal life. This was also the reason they showed such apathy to other animals and why they had such a hunger for humans.**

 **Suffice it to say that mankind had somehow screwed up so badly in the past that Mother Nature had felt the need to fight back by giving birth to these monsters.**

"Ohh...that's bad..."Nora winced as those from Remnant all cringed.

"We done fucked up..." Yang said.

"Wait, what?! So the Grimm are the good guys?!" Ruby cried, "But that doesn't make any sense!"

"People rarely listen when they see something that frightens them. It's easy to see what's different, but the problem is that they're usually afraid of what's different because they don't understand it, so they fear what they don't understand; and they despise what they fear. People would rather make sure it doesn't hurt them before thinking about what it might be. That's why hostility breeds further hostility. Trust me on that." Naruto sighed heavily.

"So...with how there's no way to learn more about Grimm, the mystery added onto their appearances and and behavior make people feel threatened?" Weiss summed up.

Naruto nodded.

 **Being a Sage and, by proxy, being so in tune with the planet Naruto always felt a little bad when he had to kill Grimm. Sure they seemed mindless and all, but really they were just Nature's anger at what humans had done to her planet.**

 **His only solace was knowing that, by killing Grimm, the plant life around them would grow all the more resilient and lively.**

Naruto sighed, somewhat relieved at that.

 **So it was with a mental sigh that Naruto lodged a kunai knife into the jugular of the rather large Ursai that had attempted to have him and Pyrrha for dinner. In all honesty the fight had been terribly one sided. He was a well trained shinobi with his fair share of experience and it seemed that Pyrrha's title of "The Invincible Girl" was well earned.**

Pyrrha shifted, not entirely comfortable with that. She didn't like her pedestal, after all.

 **Combined, the two had taken the large bear like Grimm down in record time.**

 **Naruto was also quite surprised to get a peek at Pyrrha's battle prowess. She seemed to flow like water, changing between attacking and defending with ease while still managing to dish out her fair share of blows. That fluidity also translated seamlessly into how she handled her weapon. The ease with which she transitioned her weapon from javelin, to sword, to rifle, and back again was only achievable through years of practice and dedication, though inborn talent also seemed to play a part.**

"Sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable, Pyrrha. Just...I'm good at noticing these things in the field." Naruto explained.

The redhead nodded. That made sense.

 **Stretching a bit Naruto shared a smile with Pyrrha before gesturing in the direction they had originally been sent, "Shall we?"**

 **The redhead nodded, "Sure. Hopefully we won't run into too much opposition though."**

 **Naruto nodded in agreement. The less he had to reveal in combat the better. He did not need people asking questions and if what Ozpin said about the teachers monitoring their progress was true, he should be all the more cautious. Passing off some of his ninjutsu** **as his Semblance with the other teens was easy enough.**

"What can you do with this Ninjutsu stuff?" Nora asked.

Naruto smiled teasingly, "No spoilers, Nora!" he chided playfully, to which the hammer-used laughed.

"Ok, I'll wait then!" she declared.

Ren stared at the blond ninja. No way...how in the heck had he gotten Nora to agree to that so...EASILY?! Even if he and Nora had known one another since childhood, Ren himself still had trouble getting Pink Voltage Valkyrie to relent on thing!

 **Getting someone like Ozpin to believe it? That would be a much harder task.**

"More like impossible..." Jaune muttered, thinking of his forged transcripts to get into Beacon.

 **As he and his new partner made their way through the Emerald Forest Pyrrha was the one to strike up a conversation, "I don't remember seeing you at Sanctum, so did you go to Signal?"**

 **"Actually Beacon would be my first official school I'm attending. We had an Academy back in my old village that trained us as well, but it wasn't reputable enough to count so I had to take the battle exam to get into Beacon," Naruto replied.**

Naruto paled, he couldn't handle bookwork! But this battle exam at least sounded like something he could do, at least.

 **Pyrrha smiled at the chance to get to know her partner a little more, "Where are you from?"**

 **"It was outside of the kingdoms and was built decades ago by my village's first leader, a man named Hashirama Senju. Because of all the trees that surrounded our village and acted as a natural defense it was called Konohagakure no Sato or the Village Hidden in the Leaves."**

 **The green eyed Huntress in training listened attentively as Naruto spoke with an obvious fondness of his home. Yet still she noticed the bittersweet look in his eyes, almost as if his home held as many bad memories as it did good ones.**

 **"It sounds like you really loved your village," Pyrrha said with a smile.**

Naruto nodded.

 **Naruto nodded his head and let a sad chuckle escape his lips, "It's funny really. When I was younger I used to run around screaming that I was going to become my village's leader someday."**

 **The armor clad redhead giggled at the mental picture of a short blond kid going around yelling that he was the greatest.**

"Sounds like Ruby almost," Yang joked.

"HEY!" Naruto and Ruby both cried, glaring at her.

 **"That's still possible. After you graduate from Beacon you can still go back home and become your village's leader right?" Pyrrha offered.**

 **Naruto shook his head, "Sadly that's no longer a possibility.**

Naruto paled, then stuffed his fingers in his ears and started humming loudly. He was REALLY gonna hate this next part, he could just tell!

 **Bout a year or so ago Konoha was attacked by...a horde of Grimm. We tried our best to fight back, but in the end there were too many and we were being overrun. The elders knew this and so they made a call to have anyone under 15 flee the village so they could live. I tried to stay and fight but my old sensei wouldn't let me and, using his Semblance, had me transported far away,"**

Kakashi blinked. Clearly these events happened prior to his loosing Obito's eye if his story counterpart had access to the Kamui jutsu.

 **Naruto paused to clear the lump in his throat before continuing, "by the time I managed to make my way back to the village it was too late. Konoha was burning and there was no one left alive."**

 **As Naruto had begun his little tale the two had gradually slowed down until eventually, as his story ended, they had come to a full stop. As Naruto held back the very real tears that threatened to fall, Kurama tightened his hold on his container, offering only his presence as a comfort knowing full well that despite what Naruto had said being a partial lie, a chunk of it was also very much so true.**

"Don't judge him badly. Even a partial truth about something like that is horrible enough..." Ren said, suddenly tense and trembling, his eyes wide and gripping his knees with white-knuckled hands.

 **Pyrrha herself was holding back tears. For someone, anyone, to go through that was heart wrenching. Losing your home, your family, your friends, your people all in a single day? It was something she wouldn't wish on anybody. The worst part was then having to watch, helplessly, as it all went up in flames.**

Nora gulped heavily, looking catatonic as she put her hands to her head and started whimpering as she pulled her knees to her chest as she started hyperventilating. She grabbed Ren's hand and squeezed it fiercely, as though it were a lifeline.

Everyone else looked at the two long-time friends with concern. Whatever was up with them, it was clear the last passage they'd just read bothered them both immensely for some reason.

Whatever it was, it was obviously painful for them, so they all decided against asking.

 **While Naruto attempted to recompose himself he was wondering just what in the hell had made him tell Pyrrha all of that. Granted it wasn't the whole truth, it was still close enough to stir up the memories of what had really happened to leave him here on Remnant. Why had he felt comfortable enough with Pyrrha to tell her that? With him sharing this story with her, Pyrrha now knew more about Naruto than anyone else on Remnant.**

Pyrrha blinked. Naruto trusted her THAT much already? Sure it was a half truth; but still, like Ren said, the things that made you lose your home and loved ones weren't topics to tell just anyone about, especially right off the bat like that after meeting someone.

 **And oddly enough...he was ok with that. It felt good to get that off his chest. Given he had spent quite a length of time talking about it with Kurama, but that was somehow different. Telling Pyrrha even a fraction of the truth lifted a weight off the blond's shoulders and Kurama seemed to be ok with Naruto's actions, which was a sure sign that Pyrrha was a good person, given that the Kitsune had a general dislike for all of mankind with only a small handful of exceptions.**

Jaune whistled. Fox must have high standards.

 **Feeling Pyrrha's gentle hand on his shoulder he turned and offered the redhead a true smile, "Sorry about dumping all of that on you. Kinda all just came out at once."**

 **Pyrrha just shook her head with her own genuine smile, "It's fine. I can't really blame you as that must have been a difficult part of your life. But now that we're partners know that I'm here for you whenever you need it."**

Naruto pulled his fingers out of his ears and smiled at the girl gratefully.

 **Nodding at each other the two continued on their way through the Emerald Forest, the blond feeling lighter in a manner of speaking while the redhead felt happy knowing that her partner trusted her enough to reveal such an intimate part of his past.**

* * *

 **Miles away atop the cliff that the teens had been launched from, a very irritated Glynda Goodwitch poured over the mysterious blond's records, at least what they had on him which was all but nonexistent. Before taking the battle exam to gain entrance to Beacon they had nothing. For all intents and purposes the blond may just have dropped out of the sky, or simply come into existence and they would know no better. The cheerful blond was an enigma and that aggravated Glynda to no end.**

Yang snickered. "You got Goodwitch this stressed already? Oh, I so knew we were gonna get along great, Foxy!" she told Naruto.

 **Glynda was a woman who prided herself on being able to pick up on even the smallest of hints that allowed her to judge anyone rather accurately. She was equally proud to call herself intelligent and yet this blond teen was pushing the limits of that.**

 **He jumped so erratically between being a normal teen boy, a seemingly veteran warrior, and a man haunted by his past mistakes so quickly that it was hard to asses just who he really was. It both confounded her and caused her no minor amount of irritation.**

Naruto shrugged. A warrior's life could do that to you. Happened a lot with shinobi.

 **Ozpin meanwhile stood there as an exact counterpart to the frustrated blonde woman, calmly sipping his coffee as he gazed out at the vast stretch of forest below. There was no denying it. Naruto Uzumaki was an enigma. However Ozpin knew that Naruto was also aware of this and there would be no strides made in unraveling said enigma without the blond's permission.**

"Can I say I'm starting to like the Ozpin guy?" Naruto asked.

Ruby smiled, "He has that effect on people. Trust me."

 **For now all anyone could do was wait. In time the blond would grow to trust some and only then would they be able to find the answers to the many questions that surrounded one Naruto Uzumaki.**

* * *

 **"Do you really think the relics would be in a cave?" Pyrrha asked her blond companion.**

"NO!" Pyrrha and Jaune cried. They remember how well THAT had gone!

 **The two had stumbled upon a rather large cave opening and were now debating on if the initiation would have them go on a spelunking trip to retrieve the relics.**

"Should have stayed out of that cave." the Arc mumbled.

 **Naruto shrugged before reaching up and tearing a sizable branch off of a nearby tree. Reaching into his jacket the blond pulled out what appeared to medical bandages and proceeded to wrap the bindings around the top of the branch. To Pyrrha's surprise the small fox kit who had seen sleeping cracked open a single eye before bringing its tail to the top of the makeshift torch. With not even a grunt of effort a small red flame flickered to life on the tip of the fox's tail before leaping to the torch, igniting it, and providing them a much needed source of light.**

"Fire fox!" Nora cheered.

Yang snickered, "Cute and combat ready? Reminds me of Zwei."

Ruby giggled and nodded happily, she wished the Pembroke Welsh Corgi was with them.

 **Now that Pyrrha was focusing intently on the fox wrapped around Naruto's neck she began to take notice of its unique features. Where other foxes where a variety of colors, Naruto's fox was a color she had never seen before. Its fur was a burnt orange color bordering on a dark red. Even the fox's tail was unique as, instead of the normal short yet fluffy tail most fox were known for, this fox's tail was quite long, long enough to easily wrap around Naruto's neck and drop down to his chest somewhat. Then there was its face. Stretching from the area surrounding its eyes and reaching up to its ears was a patch of black fur, which was also seen outlining its lips. It also had a rather long and skinny body that gave it an almost human like appearance. Then there were the eyes. A crimson so vibrant and like blood that it put her own red tresses to shame.**

"Very much a cool-looking fox." Nora appraised.

Within the seal, Kurama smirked at that.

 **All in all Naruto's fox was different and seemed to even be able to understand human speech and conjure flames on a whim.**

Naruto snorted in amusement at that, "Trust me, you guys: You haven't seen ANYTHING that proves Kurama's awesome yet!" he told the Beacon students.

 **"What kind of fox is that Naruto?" Pyrrha asked, the curiosity nagging at her.**

"The most badass kind in the world!" Naruto smirked, Kurama had EARNED that opinion from him.

 **Kurama turned and regarded the teen, burning crimson eyes staring at her with such intensity that it felt like the fox was peering through her, judging her very being. It left Pyrrha feeling uncomfortable. Seemingly satisfied with its judgement of her the fox let its head fall and its eyes close, apparently going back to its napping.**

 **Naruto spoke up, returning her attention back to the blond as he motioned for her to follow him into the cave, "He's not so much a fox as he is a Kitsune, a branch of the fox family though far more intelligent and powerful, something he likes to brag about."**

 **Pyrrha just nodded her head at the vague reply, understanding that Naruto still had some secrets to keep. She didn't mind and was more than happy to wait and let Naruto tell her when he was ready.**

Naruto smiled, feeling grateful for that.

 **As it was he had already told her about a rather significant part of his past.**

 **As the two ventured even deeper into the cave, they both began to grow anxious, neither liking the dark enclosed space. As they trudged on and on, there was an odd sense that they shouldn't be there, a foreboding feeling that seemed to whisper into their ear to leave and go no further.**

 **"Uh Naruto, are you sure the relics are in here?" Pyrrha questioned.**

 **"Right now? Not really," Naruto admitted with a chuckle.**

 **Deciding to cut their losses the pair turned around and began to make their way back out of the cave. However both paused in their steps upon hearing...something moving just behind them.**

 ** _'Kit...you need to go...NOW!'_**

Pyrrha and Jaune nodded vigorously.

 **Without even a second thought Naruto tossed the torch to the ground and picked up Pyrrha bridal style before pushing chakra into his legs and powering forward in a dead sprint. Pyrrha didn't even bother to ask what was going on, having seen five pairs of burning red eyes peering at her and Naruto through the darkness. Instead of playing the damsel in distress, Pyrrha pulled out her spear and shifted it into its rifle form before firing off a full clip at whatever was chasing them.**

Kakashi looked at Pyrrha, he could easily see Kushina doing the same. NO WAY that woman was a damsel in distress, anyone that tried to make her out as one had their spine reshaped into a pretzel! He'd seen her do it, too!

 **Clearly whatever it was had thick armor as she could hear the bullets bouncing off of what she suspected to be a large Grimm.**

 **Not one to be so easily stumped in battle Pyrrha reached down to her belt before pulling out a different clip, this one full of rounds imbued with Fire Dust, giving them that much more kick. Quickly swiveling her body, the redhead looked down her sights as she fired over Naruto's shoulder. This time the bullets seemed to pierce the Grimm's armor just enough to cause it to slow down. None too soon either as Naruto sped through the cave entrance, bringing them back into the bright light of day.**

 **Only seconds after, the cliff the cave had lead into erupted into a shower of rumble as a massive scorpion like Grimm burst through the opening, letting out a screech of hunger and power.**

Jaune moaned and Pyrrha didn't look any happier about it. Needless to say, they both recalled that _particular_ Deathstalker Grimm only too well!

 **With acidic stinger and pincers poised to tear them to shreds Naruto and Pyrrha shared a look before nodding. Turning on their heels the pair began to book it as fast as they could, intent on putting space between them and the massive Death Stalker Grimm that would like to have them for lunch.**

 ** _'Why does everything I do have to end up going horribly wrong?'_ Naruto lamented.**

Naruto groaned. "That's happened to me so much as it is, but in the book, too? There's a tell-me-about-it joke in that, but I'd rather not go there with the other me..."

Yang snapped her fingers, she got it and it was actually pretty amusing to her. If only she'd made a joke about that!

* * *

 **Meanwhile a certain busty blonde and her raven haired partner managed to stumble on what looked to be the remains of a long since abandoned temple. The only standing part of the ruin was a circular platform upon which stood various stone pedestals. On those pedestals were what looked to be chess pieces of some kind.**

 **Yang turned to her silent partner and asked, "Think this is it?"**

 **Blake just gave the blonde a deadpan stare before making her way to the stone ruins. Yang shrugged before following.**

 **As the pair inspected the ruins and what they assumed to be the relics Blake spoke, "Chess pieces?"**

Naruto and Kakashi looked to one another and shrugged. What was chess?

 **"Some of them are missing. Looks like we weren't the first ones here."**

 **"Well I guess we should pick one," Blake replied in an unsure tone. When Ozpin had said relics they had assumed it would be some ancient and valuable artifact, not chess pieces.**

The other members of teams RWBY and JNPR all nodded, they had each assumed the same.

 **"How about a cute little pony?" Yang cheered.**

 **Blake rolled her eyes, but it was easy to see the amusement on her face, "Sure."**

 **"Well that wasn't too hard!"**

 **The raven haired teen shrugged, "Well it's not like this place is difficult to find."**

* * *

 **Still running for their life, Pyrrha and Naruto sneezed in sync. Despite the massive Grimm only yards behind them, the pair looked at each other before shrugging at the odd coincidence.**

The orange ninja and the greek warrior-themed redhead both gave Blake and Yang dirty looks.

 **"Duck!" Pyrrha called out as the Death Stalker attempted to skewer Naruto with its stinger.**

"Thanks for the heads-up." Naruto told her, dropping his look at the black and yellow members of team RWBY.

"Any time," the redhead smiled back.

 **The blond reacted quickly, curling himself into a ball and rolling to avoid the no doubt toxic point of death.**

"Yeah...thanks again for the heads-up...I do NOT like the idea of ending up as a shish kebab for a bug on steroids!" Naruto said.

 **Pyrrha tossed her shield like a frisbee, hoping to cause some damage only for the scorpion on steroids to easily smack it aside with a pincer. Naruto quickly ducked and weaved through the pincers and grabbed the fallen shield before performing a short flip into the air. Just in the nick of time as well, seeing as the scorpion like Grimm had attempted to catch him in one of its pincers.**

 **Naruto fell quickly back down and used the pincer as a springboard, shooting off into the air to catch up with his teammate. Landing with a roll, Naruto was quick to recover and popped up running alongside his red haired partner.**

"Impressive acrobatics." Ren noted with approval.

 **The two resumed their little "run from the scary thing that wants to kill us" exercise,**

"...I HATE that exercise! I mean it!" Naruto cried, getting nods from the Beacon students, all of whom understood that completely.

 **Naruto handing Pyrrha back her shield as they ran for all they were worth.**

* * *

 **"Did you hear that?" Yang asked, worry evident in her words.**

 **Blake just nodded, an equally worried look on her face. Within the span of a few seconds the sounds of fights were erupting from everywhere in the forest. Of course Yang was more worried about her sister than anyone else. Just as Yang was preparing to go out and look for her sister, the two heard a scream coming from close by. Looking up both Blake and Yang's eyes widened when they saw a panicked Ruby falling from the sky, headed straight towards them.**

 **"HEADS UP!"**

 **For the second time in two days Ruby found herself falling into the arms of her shocked sister.**

"Least it was a soft landing, maybe the reason Yang's chest is so big is so they act as an air bag..." Naruto said.

Yang's jaw dropped at that as the others all smirked in amusement.

"Going to need to remember that one." Blake smirked.

Yang pouted, traitors!

 **Their attention was diverted elsewhere, when a rather large Ursai Grimm waltzed out of the tree lines, roaring in what seemed to be anger. Before the bear like Grimm could proceed any further there was flash of pink and a childlike exclamation of, "YEE HAW!"**

"That was fun!" Nora laughed.

Ren rubbed his temples. No it wasn't.

 **Rolling from the now more than likely dead Ursai's back was a pouting Nora Valkyrie, "Aww, it's broken."**

Everyone looked at Nora."Has she...?"

 **Her partner and friend, Lie Ren, clambered over the fallen form of the Grimm, panting and looking quite exhausted.**

 **"Nora...don't...ever do that again," the raven haired teen said in between gasps for air.**

 **Looking up he realized that he was only talking to himself and that Nora had made her way to the ruins, clearly entertained by the shiny golden chess pieces. Grabbing a rook she began to dance around proclaiming, "I'm queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!"**

Ren nodded. "...She has." he muttered, exhausted.

 **Tired and frustrated by the day's events Ren barked out, "Nora!"**

 **The eccentric orange haired girl immediately stopped her dance, the rook planted precariously on her head, and saluted her friend, "Coming Ren!"**

 **Stunned, Blake was the one to voice the question on everyone's mind, "Did that girl just ride in on in Ursa?"**

"Yes...thank you, Captain Obvious!"

Blake glared at Jaune, making a note to hurt him later.

 **Both Yang and Ruby, who was still in her sister's arms, continued to gape at the very odd girl, "Uhhhh..."**

 **Before any other questions could be asked, their attention was turned to the tree line where a running Naruto and Pyrrha emerged. Following shortly behind them was a massive Death Stalker who looked intent on having the pair for lunch, tearing up trees as it did so.**

 **Again Blake was the one to address the obvious, "Did they seriously run all the way here with a Death Stalker on their tail?"**

The two in question looked at Blake.

"Truly your deductive skills are a wonder." Naruto said dryly, "can any of you figure out a way to kill the monster bug trying to eat my and Pyrrha's other selves now?!" he asked while the redhead nodded.

Blake gave Naruto an annoyed look, but she understood why that'd be an issue for the whiskered teen.

 **Obviously at her wits end with all the odd occurrences happening Yang exploded...literally, "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! COULD EVERYONE CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN!?"**

"Chill out, huh? Well Pyrrha and I would love to do that, but we've got a giant bug trying to kill us!" Naruto said.

Pyrrha nodded. Wondering why no one helped with that back during initiation in her actual world, too.

 **As Yang seethed in frustration, Blake calmly stood there with her arms crossed. Ren finally caught up to the group, still slightly out of breath while Nora acted like everything was normal and stood there fidgeting. Ruby was staring at the sky with a worried look before she tugged on her sister's sleeve like a small child, "Um...Yang."**

 **Yang let her head fall in frustration, not even wanting to know what else was going to happen. Still she and the others looked up only to be shocked yet again.**

 **There was Weiss Schnee...flying...by hanging onto the talon of a Nevermore...a very large Nevermore.**

Weiss blanched at the reminder of that ride.

 **"How could you leave me!?" The Schnee heiress managed to cry over the howling winds.**

 **Ruby shrugged, "I said jump!"**

 **Blake decided to chime in with her usual monotone, "She's gonna fall."**

 **"She'll be fiiinnne," Ruby waved.**

"I was not!" Weiss snapped at her team leader.

"I said jump! Why's it my fault you didn't listen?" Ruby pouted.

 **Joining the conversation Ren stated the obvious, "She's falling."**

 **Meanwhile the still running Naruto and Pyrrha peered up at the sky seeing the falling Weiss.**

 **Internally Naruto sighed, _'Damn my hero complex.'_**

"Eh...I've been in situations where I needed help, but those that could help me and knew I needed it wouldn't give it to me. And I don't want to be _that guy_ , ya know?" Naruto explained himself, awkwardly scratching at the back of his head.

The Beacon students all nodded. That was understandable.

 **Putting on the brakes, Naruto came to a sudden halt and turned to face the rampaging Death Stalker. Pyrrha came to a stop a few yards after Naruto had and shouted out the blond in worry, "Naruto! What are you doing!?"**

"Something crazy in the name of keeping Weiss Schee from ending up a mangled smear on the ground." Naruto said.

"And I thank you for that." the heiress said.

 **Naruto sheepishly grinned before turning to the oncoming Grimm with a serious look to his whiskered face. The teen crouched low, preparing for something, what exactly that was no one knew. The blond tended to do the unexpected it seemed.**

Kakashi laughed at that assessment of his student, "You have NO idea!"

 **This was further proven by Naruto's next move.**

 **As the Death Stalker was only feet away from Naruto, the teen leapt up, landing directly on the white armor like plating of the massive Grimm. Naruto didn't stop th** **ere however, and began to sprint across the Grimm's back. In seconds flat Naruto had covered the entirety of the scorpion like Grimm's back and was running up its outstretched tail. Reaching the tip, Naruto crouched before launching himself through the air.**

"Foxy...you're nuts!" Yang said, then grinned, "I like it! You're wild!"

Naruto smirked, "Molds were made to be broken, and being able to do so is the sign of a true badass, am I right?"

The heavy-hitter of RWBY nodded, giving a thumbs-up at that.

 **Using a small amount of Wind Chakra Naruto pushed himself forward, just in time to catch Weiss in his arms.**

 **"Fancy meeting you here Princess," was Naruto's cheeky comment.**

Jaune's jaw dropped, "Oh, come on!" Why was this other blond male so much smoother than he was?! Sure, Jaune knew he abysmal starting out, but it was hard seeing how well Naruto did without feeling jealous!

Weiss glared at Naruto, "Are you going to try flirting with me?" she asked, she did _NOT_ need another person acting like that to her!

"Nope, I just like witty banter." he replied.

At that, the Schnee calmed down.

 **Weiss huffed in annoyance, "Not that I'm ungrateful but what now? We're both falling to the ground in case you didn't notice."**

 **Naruto took on a pensive look before shrugging casually, as if falling from a hundred or so feet wasn't anything to worry about.**

"Been there, done that." the ninjas both said as casually as if that was talking about the weather.

Everyone else looked at Naruto and Kakashi.

 **Weiss face palmed and angrily muttered to herself, "Ugh. Boys."**

 **Without even batting an eye the Schnee heiress reached to her side and pulled out the silver rapier sheathed at her side. Pointing it below them she called upon her Semblance, creating a complex set of what looked to be runes below them. Naruto looked at the glyphs with a critical eye.**

Naruto suddenly looked interested.

 **The Uzumaki clan was known for two things: their incredible longevity and their innate prowess in the art of Fuinjutsu. Their longevity allowed them to survive what most would consider mortal wounds and continue fighting.**

"Impressive resilience." Blake noted.

"So these Uzumaki guys were like cockroaches?" Yang asked.

Kakashi had to grab Naruto to keep in from attacking Yang at the unintended jab at the Uzumaki family and their ability to take a hit with their longevity and durability, as within the seal, Kurama hooted with laughter, fully agreeing with the lilac-eyed blonde's assessment!

"YANG!" Ruby cried. "Apologize! NOW!"

 **The Uzumaki talent for the Sealing Arts**

"Sealing arts?" Weiss asked.

 **helped them earn infamy as one of the most powerful clans and villages around. They were so feared that during a previous war it had taken the power of three of the Five Great Shinobi Villages to take them down and even then the villages only succeeded in forcing the Uzumaki clan to spread across the different countries.**

The Beacon group all gaped at that as Naruto winced.

 **Naruto's father, while not of the Uzumaki clan, was also a powerful and knowledgeable user of Fuinjutsu. The man's genius had allowed him to perfect the Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), a jutsu that allowed the user to bend space and time so they could teleport instantaneously.**

"Oh man, that sounds so awesome!" Ruby cheered.

 **With the technique Naruto's father had slaughtered a whole battalion of enemy shinobi in seconds flat.**

"And the awesome just died..." Jaune said as the Beacon students looked horrified at the use Naruto's father had put the technique to, having figured Shinobi was a profession similar to that of being a Huntsmen or Huntress.

"Grudges that evolved into war..." Blake sighed at last then looked at Naruto solemnly, "That's why your dad had to put the skill to that kind of use, isn't it?"

Naruto stared at the catgirl, shocked at how she knew that, and part of him not wanting to know how she knew that, then reluctantly nodded to it, feeling sick as he did so.

Blake shuddered, not looking pleased at being right, yet more understanding as to why Naruto's father had his hand forced to use the ability to that means.

 **It was then that he had earned his title as the Konoha no Kiiroi Senko (Yellow Flash of Konoha).**

 **As the son to an Uzumaki and the Yellow Flash Naruto had inherited his parents' proclivity to seals and the runes Weiss had just called upon with a whim absolutely fascinated him.**

"Oh! So my glyphs are similar to these seal arts, then?" Weiss asked.

Naruto nodded.

Weiss looked very interested in that. If that were true, she and Naruto would need to compare notes.

 **Had the Uzumakis been able to write their seals on thin air they would have been that much more powerful, and probably been able to fight back the forces that had destroyed their home.**

 **Considering that despite Weiss taking care of the current situation, there was still a pissed off Nevermore and Death Stalker to deal with, Naruto decided to push his fascination with Weiss' Semblance to the back of his mind.**

"Priorities are important." Weiss agreed.

 **Landing on the very solid rune formation, Naruto waited to see if Weiss was going to continue to help considering they were still quite high in the air. Again Weiss huffed before creating several of the rune platforms, all of which descended in a manner that made them resemble a staircase. Naruto shrugged and proceeded to hop his way down using the Aura created platforms.**

 **As they touched back down on solid ground and Naruto placed the white haired teen on her feet he began to have flashbacks to a certain pink haired teammate of his as Weiss chewed him out.**

 **"Some hero you are! I may as well have saved myself!"**

 **"...well why didn't you?"**

Everyone looked at the white-dressed heiress who sputtered as she tried to come up with a response to that.

 **Weiss sputtered to come up with a rebuttal and when none came she resorted to her go to maneuver...of huffing and pouting.**

Weiss's friends all burst out laughing. Weiss glared at Naruto, first with shaking the dust around, now this! Was he out to get her or something?!

 ** _'I swear she's like Sasuke and Sakura rolled into one...except in white,'_ Naruto quipped.**

"Who are those two?" Weiss asked, interested.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Trust me...better off not knowing."

 **Kurama was more than happy to throw in his own two cents, _'Just be happy we don't have to deal with her. Kami knows I would end up either murdering her or myself...probably the former. In fact...'_**

"What?!" Weiss cried, paling.

 ** _'No Kurama we are not murdering Weiss._**

Weiss sighed, relieved at that. She sent a nod to Naruto.

 ** _Remember she's the heiress to a wealthy and powerful family?'_**

 ** _'And you're a shinobi. You were trained for these kinds of missions!'_**

 ** _'Ok look we have a giant ass scorpion and_ _an_ _even bigger bird to deal with right now, not the time to be discussing the assassination of an heiress.'_**

"Never thought I'd feel grateful to Grimm..." Weiss said.

"Yeah...Kurama never liked Sasuke OR Sakura very much...he loathed Sasuke especially in fact." Naruto explained.

Weiss nodded, cringing at that.

 ** _'You say that like these pests actually pose a problem. You and I both know that even the old dumbass you could handle these things with little_ _difficulty_ _.'_**

 ** _'Yea well I don't exactly want to just toss out a few jutsu and have people asking questions, not right now at least.'_**

 **Kurama grinned in satisfaction at his container's answer, _'My my kit you really are my Jinchuuriki_ (Power of the Human Sacrifice) _.'_**

Everyone winced at that title.

 **Naruto chose to ignore the comment, already knowing what the fox meant by that. As he became more of a shinobi, he also became more like a fox, becoming trickier and more cunning.**

"Necessary qualities for a Huntsmen..." Ren said, knowing while the strength helped, you couldn't just brute-force everything.

 **Funny how in the Shinobi era he had been anything but. Now during this time of Hunters and Huntresses he was becoming more like a true shinobi.**

 **Shaking those thoughts off Naruto felt Pyrrha next to him, panting a bit with a slight sheen of sweat covering her, no doubt from the little marathon run they had been motivated to take part in.**

Pyrrha nodded, recalling how bad she'd wanted a shower after that.

 **At seeing Pyrrha's appearance Yang chose to sarcastically cheer, "Great the gang's all here! Now we can all die together."**

 **Ruby piped up, intent on proving to everyone there that she was just as capable of a warrior as any of them, "Not if I can help it."**

Ruby groaned, recalling this moment. Not her best...

 **Before anyone could stop the young teen, Ruby was off in a dead sprint, charging towards the oncoming Death Stalker with her massive scythe trailing behind her and cloak fluttering in the wind.**

 **Obviously worried for her sister Yang called out, "Ruby! Wait!"**

 **Naruto meanwhile could only sigh and facepalm, _'Kami damnit.'_**

 **With a cheeky grin on his face Kurama piped in, _'Remind you of anyone?'_**

"...You are SO gonna die!" Naruto seethed as Kakashi snorted in a laughter.

 **Naruto only responded with a glare, _'Not. A. Word.'_**

 **Kurama said nothing more with only the sounds of his booming laughter echoing through Naruto's head as his response.**

The Beacon group looked at Naruto "...You were like that too when you started out?" Yang snickered, unable to believe it.

"Shut up!" Naruto snapped, embarrassed. "I had a lot to prove at first, ok!?"

Ruby nodded firmly. She understood THAT feeling perfectly!

 **Sighing Naruto prepared himself for the more than likely inevitable rescuing he would have to do...again. It wasn't that he thought Ruby was weak, far from it after all she wielded that bigass scythe of hers like it was a feather. However she wasn't exactly thinking straight right now. Running towards a massive Grimm screaming bloody murder wasn't the brightest of ideas, no matter how skilled you were.**

Ruby winced.

 **He and the others winced in sync as they saw Ruby power herself forward with the help of the recoil from the gun portion of her scythe...gun...thing.**

"THING?!" Ruby raged, Crescent Rose was a badass weapon she'd crafted herself, it was her baby!

 **Even still she was too slow as the Death Stalker was able to smack her aside like she was nothing but an annoying fly.**

Ruby hid in her cloak and hood again at the reminder of that.

 **Struggling to stand, no doubt dazed from the blow, Ruby yelled out in a strained voice, "D-don't worry! To-totally fine!"**

Kakashi looked back and forth between Naruto and Ruby, "I think a blood test might be in order with how alike you two are. Might end up being related." he said to the pair of embarrassed teens.

 **Turning around Ruby realized far too late that the Grimm had taken the opportunity to close the distance between them, now staring at her hungrily. Panicking she fired off a shot at its face, serving only to irritate it, and turned and began to run as fast her legs could carry her.**

 **Yang saw the obvious danger her sister was in and began to sprint her way to Ruby. Luck wasn't with them as it seemed the Nevermore had decided to help its fellow Grimm and circled around. With a mighty flap of its wings it unleashed a rain of its own feathers, the points of which were as sharp as any blade. Like gunfire they rained down onto the ground, embedding themselves deep into the earth. Murphy's Law decided to rear its head and one of the feathers managed to catch up to Ruby and run straight through her cloak, pinning her to the ground.**

"Capes are very non-functional." Weiss said.

"Are so!" Ruby argued.

"Oh really? Let's look at a few famous Hunters and Huntresses then: Thunderhead? Storm semblance? Nice man, good with kids. All was well, another day saved, when... his cape snagged on a missile fin! Stratogale! Cape caught in a jet turbine! Metaman, express elevator! Dynaguy, snagged on takeoff! Splashdown, sucked into a vortex! No capes!"

Ruby whimpered as her bestie said all that.

 **Several more of the feathers managed to find their way to Yang, causing her to stumble so that she could avoid being skewered to death. Racing to her feet she saw Ruby frantically tugging at her pinned cloak in an attempt to free herself.**

 **"Ruby! Get out of there!"**

 **A very much so panicking Ruby answered back, "I'm trying!"**

"Why not use your scythe and cut the cape off?" Kakashi asked.

"Never!" Ruby cried, hugging the article of clothing.

 **Turning to look upwards as a shadow covered her, the red haired teen turned wide grey eyes to see the Death Stalker prepping its massive stinger, aimed straight at her. Clenching her eyes, the young teen prepared for the worse.**

 **Seconds ticked by and when there was no pain she wearily opened her eyes to see a wall of ice holding the stinger of the Death Stalker back. The voice of Weiss came up as the Grimm struggled to free its tail, "Ugh, you are so childish!"**

 **"Weiss?"**

 **Standing from her crouched position Weiss only continued on her mini rant, "And dim witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style.**

Kakashi looked to Naruto as the story listed off what Weiss had thought of Ruby. Damn he and Ruby were a lot more alike than the masked man thought!

"On my parents' graves, so help me, I WILL burn you books if you so much as think it!" Naruto growled, glaring at the man.

Kakashi quickly looked away, knowing the threat to his beloved Make-Out series books was no bluff.

 **Though I...suppose...I can be a bit...difficult, but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together."**

Naruto stared. Sheesh! He was seeing the parallels between Ruby and Weiss's relationship and his and Sasuke's!

 **Sighing in what appeared to be mock frustration the white haired teen continued, "So if you quit trying to show off I'll be...nicer."**

 **Ruby shook her head, "I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."**

Ruby nodded. "I had a lot to prove. Needed to show it wasn't a mistake that I was given a place where I was."

Weiss nodded. She understood the need to prove oneself. It was part of what she disliked about her "father".

 **"You're fine."**

 **As Weiss waltzed off Ruby let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, "Normal knees."**

"Why be normal, anyways? Conform too much and you lose sight of what makes you who you are and what makes you unique." Naruto said. "If you were allowed into Beacon the way you were, it means there's something special special about you, something extraordinary that you aren't even aware of. Are you willing to throw that away just to become just another face in the crowd, Ruby? You're better than that. Just be you and never give up and you'll go far, I know it. "

Ruby smiled, feeling touched that Naruto felt that that way and he believed in her like that.

 **As Yang raced to crush her sister to death in a hug, Naruto smiled, _'Hmm. Guess_ _Princess_ _isn't as bad as we thought.'_**

 **Once the teens had all regrouped Naruto decided to voice the obvious, "I doubt Princess' ice prison is gonna hold that thing for long and we also have a rather angry Nevermore circling back around."**

 **For once Weiss was the one to voice her opinion, "Look there's no sense in dilly dallying, our objective is right in front of us."**

 **Ruby chimed in with her agreement, "She's right, our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."**

 **Everyone seemed to nod in agreement with the pair's assessment while Yang looked at her sister with noticeable pride.**

"I was and still am proud of her." Yang smiled.

 **Naruto shrugged, "So tactical retreat then?"**

 **With a round of nods, those who hadn't already retrieved an artifact made their way up to the platform. Naruto observed the options before noticing that there seemed to be doubles of each piece.**

 ** _'Why would they do that? Sure doubles of a piece, but to have two in the same color? Unless that whole partner speech was only half the truth and they plan on putting two pairs together to form a full team. Man this is like Kakashi's bell test all over again.'_**

"Nope." Kakashi objected.

 **Shrugging and decided to let the pieces fall where they would, Naruto grabbed a golden rook piece while he saw Ruby grab a golden knight piece. He offered a smile and thumbs up, silently praising her on her plan. Ruby giggled at Naruto's cheesy gesture before smiling back. The two walked back to their partners and their group just in time to see the Death Stalker beginning to crack its icy prison.**

"You didn't run right away?" the battle-experienced Jonin marveled.

 **As it freed its stinger and shattered the ice that had held Naruto turned to the group, "And that would be our cue to get the hell out of here!"**

 **The others nodded with him, turned, and began to book it back towards the cliffs. As they ran the sun was eclipsed by the massive shadow of the Nevermore flying above them. Spotting even more ruins ahead of them the group attempted to take cover as even more of the Grimm's feathers hailed down. Flying ahead the Grimm perched itself at the top of what remained of a stone tower, blocking them from reaching the cliffs that lay just beyond it.**

 **To make matters worse the Death Stalker decided to make its appearance, pinning the group between it and the waiting Nevermore.**

"Rock and hard place..." Yang said.

 **Mentally cursing Naruto reached for the scroll at his side. As he unfurled it he and the others had decided they had a better chance of making it around the Nevermore than they did staying and trying to fight both it and the Death Stalker. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, getting curious looks from the others as he did so, the blond ran his bloody digit across the scroll. What followed was a poof of smoke that obscured Naruto from everyone's vision.**

"What was that about?" Weiss asked.

"Sealing scroll. Used as a medium to create an artificial hammer space within the scroll and store items within it." Naruto explained.

Weiss whistled. She wish her glyphs could do that. It'd be great for shopping sprees!

 **Swiping a hand the through the air, Naruto cleared enough of the smoke to reveal that he was now holding what they assumed to be his weapon.**

"Let us see!" Ruby said, eager to see what Naruto's weapon was.

 **Gripped tightly in his hands as he stared the Death Stalker down was a shakujo, or monk's staff, that was easily a few inches taller than him. The metallic pole was a deep ebony black, seeming to absorb the very light around it. The ring that sat atop of the staff was a burnt orange color, matching the color of Kurama's fur almost exactly. Running vertically through the ring was a simple bar covered in black leather. Stitched into the leather were etchings of six magatama, comma shaped symbols. Instead of the usual rings that dangled from the main ring, Naruto's shakujo had nine short lengths of chain hanging from it.**

Naruto whistled. "Hot damn...memo to me: get or make that weapon!"

 **With his back turned to them the blonde called out, "You guys go and get to the cliffs! Me and Kurama will hold off this overgrown bug!"**

"Ok, you I get, but how can that fox help?" Jaune asked.

Naruto shook his head at his fellow blonde's word. If Arc only knew...

 **As if to show them he was more than capable of holding the two Grimm off Naruto spun the staff around and to their slight shock flames began to dance on the chain links. Sweeping it through the air in front of him Naruto unleashed a ball of flames aimed straight at the Death Stalker.**

 **"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball technique)!"**

Naruto's jaw dropped. "WHAT?! But...but I never learned any of my elemental attributes except wind!" he cried.

"No experimenting on your own, Naruto." Kakashi abolished.

Naruto glared at the silver-haired man at that, "Well maybe I wouldn't need to if the one assigned to help me learn things like that actually taught me more than a single subject once every three years! Never even made a clone to help me!"

Kakashi winced at the jab. He deserved that. Other than tree climbing, he hadn't taught Naruto a thing. Then three years later, he only taught Naruto his elemental affinity. No wonder Jiraiya had to apprentice Naruto...Kakashi had acknowledged he was an awful mentor and teacher already, but it still stung having that thrown in his face.

 **The Grimm, unable to move its lumbering body fast enough, took the brunt of the inferno directly to its face. The group heard a screech of pain come from the Grimm, but we're**

Blake frowned, "Not to be a grammar nazi, but as a lover of literature, I need to ask why there's an apostrophe there so it's "we're" rather than "were"?" she asked.

Everyone shrugged. No clue.

 **none too surprised to see it come out with only a few scorch marks on its armor. To Naruto's surprise Pyrrha appeared at his side, taking a knee, and aiming down her sights at the Grimm before unloading on it.**

 **"We're partners, so that means we stick together," was Pyrrha's reply to Naruto's unspoken question.**

"Sheesh...wish I had teammates that stood by me like THAT back home from the start!" Naruto muttered.

Sakura constantly belittled and abused him for the slightest thing, even saying hello to her, and Sasuke had tried to kill him...several times!

It really was a wonder that Naruto lacked any psychological and trust issues after all his dealings with those two as teammates.

 **Yang grinned and with a flick of her arms, the yellow bracelets on her wrists extended, covering her hands and extending a few inches past her wrists. Ruby unclasped her weapon and with a quick spin it was in its scythe form. Nora giggled and twirled her own weapon around, revealing it to be a massive war hammer. Both Weiss and Ren sighed before simply pulling out their own weapons and taking a ready stance.**

 **"Guess we make a stand here huh, Foxy?" Yang quipped as the Nevermore circled above them like a vulture.**

 **Naruto grinned right back at his fellow blonde, "Looks like it Firecracker."**

 **Yang laughed at the nickname Naruto had decided to give her, feeling it fit her perfectly.**

"Cut, print, and watermark; I like it!" Yang nodded in agreement with her other self.

 **Seeing the two Grimm closing in, Ren decided to be the voice of reason, "So what's the plan?"**

 **Naruto let a feral grin stretch across his face, "Hit 'em hard, and hit 'em fast!"**

"THAT'S your plan?!" Jaune cried.

 **"I like it!" Ruby chimed in.**

 **Weiss could only face palm, "Of course you would like that plan."**

 **Twirling his shakujo with his fingers Naruto crouched low, "Less talking, more fighting!"**

"Sir, yes sir!" Nora and Yang both laughed.

 **And with a burst of speed the blond was gone, making a beeline straight for the Death Stalker. Pyrrha nodded at Nora, giving the girl the unspoken order to follow the blond's lead as she and Ren provided covering fire. With a cheer the hammer wielding girl fired off a shot, the recoil pushing her forward and through the air.**

"I love doing that." Nora giggled.

 **"Don't forget about me Foxy!" Yang called out as she chased after Nora and her fellow blonde.**

"This I wanna see." Naruto said, wondering how his counterpart and his impromptu team would squash the bug-zilla.

The members of JNPR all nodded with the exception of Jaune Arc. Said team leader was pouting at seeing how much more capable the other male blond was...it made him feel inferior and insecure.

AND WHERE THE HECK WAS HIS OTHER, ANYWAYS?!

 **Taking a knee while Ren and Blake stood next to her, Pyrrha and the two raven haired teens began to unleash a hail of bullets, hoping to cause enough of an annoyance to the Death Stalker to give Yang, Nora, and Naruto an opening to use.**

 **Seeing that the group was more than capable of handling the Death Stalker, Ruby and Weiss turned their eyes skyward, watching the Nevermore as it circled around them. Nodding to Weiss, Ruby folder her scythe into its rifle form before taking a knee and aiming upwards. Weiss stood over her and used her Semblance to create a circle of runes that burned a fiery shade of red. Using the scope on her weapon Ruby took aim at the Nevermore as it turned to focus on them.**

 **Finally getting the gargantuan bird in her sights Ruby pulled the trigger of her rifle, letting a bullet fly from the barrel before it collided with the rune Weiss had created. Emerging out of the circle was not a bullet, but now a blazing ball of flames, hurtling through the air straight at the Nevermore. Cocking her gun yet again, Ruby let another bullet fly, creating another flaming projectile.**

 **Seeing the blazing orbs flying straight at it, the Nevermore attempted to change its course, but due to its large size it was unable to do so quickly enough. As a consequence for its lack of maneuverability, the Grimm took both of the fireballs straight to the wing, causing it enough pain to make it screech. Still the Grimm seemed only to be made even angrier by this.**

 **Glaring at Ruby and Weiss, it began to flap its mighty wings. Instead of the expected hail of feathers though there was only a heavy increase in the wind speed, enough of an increase to cause both Ruby and Weiss to be flung off their feet, tumbling away from the rest of the group.**

 **Looking up from her position on top of the Death Stalker, Yang saw her sister being flung away from the others and was quick to react. Naruto saw the same thing and knew Yang would want to make it to her sister as quick as possible.**

 **"Yang!"**

 **The busty teen turned to the blue eyed Uzumaki and saw him gesture to his cupped hands. Understanding the gesture, she rushed towards Naruto. With a slight hop she placed her right foot into the cupped hands of Naruto. Pushing down as Naruto pushed up Yang was propelled up and over Naruto. Firing off a shot from the gauntlets on her hands Yang used the recoil to push her further and faster through the air.**

 **Seeing her partner headed towards them and seeing where she was no doubt aiming, Blake unwrapped most of the ribbon that she used to tie her weapon to her hand and flung the gun portion of it towards the flying Yang. The blonde grabbed the gun and with a heave Blake managed to swing her partner around, giving her that much more momentum.**

 **As Yang chased after her sister Blake turned to Pyrrha, silently communicating her want to follow her partner. The redhead understood quickly and offered her shielded back in return. Blake nodded gratefully before running towards Pyrrha. With a spin, Blake changed her direction as she landed on Pyrrha's shield, making her face the direction in which Yang had gone. With a shove Blake pushed herself off the bronze surface with enough force to send her off in a fashion similar to Yang.**

 **Turning her gaze back to the Death Stalker, Pyrrha sweat dropped as she saw Nora happily wailing on the Grimm with her hammer, surprisingly causing slight dents in its armor. Naruto, while more restrained, was still as odd as he jabbed his shakujo into the few areas where the Grimm's armor didn't cover. Still all of this only served to make the Grimm that much angrier. Like a bucking bull the Death Stalker crouched and then quickly raised itself, sending both Nora and Naruto flying off its back.**

 **Naruto flipped in the air, landing perfectly on his feet like nothing had happened. Nora was a little more flamboyant about her landing, curling into a ball and then uncurling at the perfect time to land on her feet. Flinging her arms into the air like a gymnast she called out, "Ta dah!"**

 **Naruto held up a small white paper with the number nine written on it. Kurama unfurled his tail and on it was grasped a similar white paper with the number six on it.**

 **Nora pouted, "Meanies!"**

"I gave you a nine out of ten!" Naruto complained.

Nora pouted, "I was going for a perfect ten!"

 **Ren shook his head while Pyrrha giggled at the the odd trio.**

 **"Guys, I don't mean to interrupt, but there is still the matter of the Death Stalker to deal with," Pyrrha pointed out.**

 **Naruto nodded as he warily stared at the Death Stalker, "None of our weapons can pierce that armor of its, even with Nora's help."**

 **Moving as one the group evaded the pincer that had slammed into where they had just been standing, the impact causing a small dust cloud to form. The Death Stalker roared in frustration as its prey escaped it once again.**

 **Narrowing his eyes Naruto continued his speech, "But it doesn't have any armor on its belly. That's where we gotta hit."**

 **Taking into account what he knew of his impromptu team's abilities Naruto tried to think of a plan that would give them the opening they needed, something easier said than done.**

 ** _'Man it's times like this I wish I had Shikamaru with me. He was lazy as hell, but would have had like twenty different plans on how to take this thing down by now,'_ Naruto sighed.**

"Freakishly super genius strategist..." Naruto muttered, agreeing with his other.

 **Running his gaze over the Death Stalker that was now making its way towards them again, Naruto took note of another place its armor didn't cover.**

 **With a grin the blond Uzumaki called out, "Legs!"**

 **The other three teens regarded the Grimm and instantly saw what Naruto meant. Having come up with the idea and being the fastest of the four, Naruto lead the charge, Pyrrha following behind him, Nora behind her, and Ren bringing up the rear. Just as the Death Stalker attempted to catch them in its pincers, the group split into its pairs, Naruto and Pyrrha rushing off to the right side while Nora and Ren took the left.**

 **Firing off shots from his twin pistols, Ren was able to punch holes in the legs of the Grimm. Thanks to their weakened integrity, he was able to quickly use the blades attached to his pistols and slice through two limbs with ease.**

 **Nora on the other hand made a show of it by using her hammer like a baseball bat, swinging at the Death Stalker's exposed limbs with enough force to turn the bones in them into a fine powder.**

 **On the opposite side of the odd pair Naruto and Pyrrha were handling their side with just as much ease. Pyrrha had transitioned her weapon into its short sword form and with her superior strength, cleanly cut straight the bottom half of the Grimm's leg. Tossing her shield like a deadly frisbee, she was able to just as quickly take care of the second leg.**

 **Naruto followed behind her, and gripped the bar that lay inside the ring portion of his shakujo. With a tug Naruto revealed that hidden inside the pole of the staff was a razor sharp blade, the staff portion of the shakujo having acted as a sheath for it. The blade itself had only a single edge and lacked a curve, meaning that it was a chokuto class blade.**

"Awesome! A swordstick!" Ruby said.

"A what?" Weiss asked.

"A swordstick, or cane-sword, is a cane incorporating a concealed blade. The swordstick serves as a popular fashion accessory for the wealthy during times when it's less socially acceptable to openly carry a sword, but there are still upper-class men routinely trained in swordsmanship who wished to go armed for self-defense. Swords concealed in ladies' walking sticks and parasols are also not unknown. Malacca wood is the most commonly used material in making the cane shafts, and the standard grip was rounded and metallic. Today, designer and collector canes have sterling silver handles, and are made with wooden shafts made from various woods, including Malacca and bamboo. Ornate designs, such as animal heads, skulls, and various emblems may also be carved into the wooden handles; these may make them harder to wield, but some find them more attractive. Sword canes are most often made with stainless steel, rapier-pointed blades. While various mechanisms exist to lock the blade in place, accidents have been known to happen regularly with the simple push-to-release mechanism. Twist-lock mechanisms work well, as do double-locking mechanisms. Soon after their introduction, other "gadget canes" became popular. Instead of a blade, these would hold the tools of one's trade, compasses, and even flasks for keeping alcohol."

Everyone stared at Ruby with the exception of Yang, used to her sister being such a walking weapon dictionary like that.

"Tenten would like her..." Naruto muttered.

"Who?" Yang asked.

"A friend of mine from back home. Biggest weapons fanatic on the entire continent we're from, although she prefers the term 'armament connoisseur'...she can see a weapon once and go on about it the same way Ruby just did." Naruto chuckled with a smile.

Ruby looked ecstatic about that! Finally! A weapons-buddy! Someone she could discuss mods and ammo all the time with! And she really liked that 'armament connoisseur' term! It all excited her.

"Wait...there's two?!" Weiss asked, looking horrified at the idea of a weapons nerd that was just as bad, if not WORSE than Ruby.

"Can you introduce us!?" Ruby pleaded, her eyes shining.

Naruto laughed, "Don't know how, but if I can, I will, Ruby." he smiled, amused by her sheer enthusiasm.

 **Funneling his wind chakra through it Naruto was able to enhance its cutting power even more while also giving it an almost ethereal glow. With his sharpened sword the blond was able to easily cleave through the remaining legs of the Death Stalker like a hot knife through butter.**

"Timber!" Naruto and Nora both cheered, then looked at one another in surprise, then they shared a laugh.

 **Jumping away Naruto joined the rest of his group as they watched the now legless Death Stalker cry out in pain and collapse to the ground. Without missing a heartbeat Naruto called out, "Nora! Now!"**

 **Giving their impromptu leader a mock salute with a goofy grin stretched across her face Nora responded, "Yes sir!"**

 **Letting her hammer fall to the ground Nora charged straight at the immobile form of the Grimm. As the eccentric teen closed the distance between her and the Death Stalker, Nora hefted her hammer up and as the weapon was inches away from its target the orange haired teen pulled the trigger on the handle, firing off a rocket and sending the hammer smashing against the underside of the Death Stalker's jaw. Due to the recoil from the shot, the hammer plowed into the Grimm with the force of a train.**

 **Far too distracted by the pain of losing its limbs the Grimm was unable to defend itself in any way and took the full brunt of the attack, sending it into the air briefly before it collapsed on its side. Thanks to its rounded shape, the Death Stalker rolled onto its back, exposing its unprotected underbelly.**

 **The group of four took advantage of the opportunity presented to them and quickly leapt on top of the now thrashing Grimm. Ren was the first to attack, unleashing a hail of bullets straight into the exposed underside of the Grimm's skill and then leaping off. Using the new opening given to her by the long haired male, Pyrrha was able to jab her spear further into the flesh of the Death Stalker. As she leapt off to join Ren, Naruto jammed his own weapon into the exposed flesh, his sword now standing perpendicular to Pyrrha's spear. With a mighty swing Nora smashed her hammer against the bottoms of the two weapons simultaneously, sending both Naruto and Pyrrha's weapons tunneling through the skull of the Grimm like a pair of railroad spikes.**

"Boo-YAH! Suck it, Jumbo!" Naruto said, amusing the others as Pyrrah, Ren and Nora all nodded.

 **The two sharp weapons pierced straight through the Death Stalker's skull, coming out the other side and ending up in the ground below the now unmoving corpse.**

 **As the body of the Death Stalker began to fade into the wind the four teens began celebrating their victory over the massive Grimm. Nora let out a cheer of excitement, while Ren collapsed to the floor with a sigh and shake of his head. Pyrrha and Naruto shared a simple high five and smile.**

 **Turning his head along with the others, Naruto let a grin stretch across his face as he witnessed Ruby coordinate her own group. The four worked in a surprisingly synchronized fashion for having only worked together for a few minutes, if that. Yang and Blake provided the distraction, with the ravenette also providing her unusually long and elastic ribbon for Ruby, creating a makeshift slingshot. Weiss then created a circle of ruins that he assumed would speed up Ruby even more.**

Team RWBY all smiled at the memory. Their first team combo.

 **Naruto was proven correct as Ruby soared through the air, the combination of the recoil from her scythe's gun half and Weiss' glyphs pushing her to very impressive speeds. What happened next threw even Naruto for a loop. Ruby hooked her scythe around the throat of the Nevermore, her feet landing solidly against the cliff face. Weiss again created more runes, making a line of them that drove straight up the cliff. Ruby used the runes to stick herself to the sheer cliff wall and began to give gravity the finger by scaling up the rocky wall, dragging the Nevermore behind her.**

 **Firing off shots at a constant rate, Ruby was able to maintain her speed and quickly cover the entirety of the cliff in the matter of a few seconds. Reaching the cliff's plateau, the body of the Nevermore was stuck underneath the lip of said plateau. Another shot and a burst of speed from what he assumed to be her Semblance and Ruby's scythe cleaved straight through the Nevermore's neck, severing the head from the rest of its body.**

 **As the the now headless corpse began to fall down the abyss at the bottom of the cliff, even Naruto had to admit what he had just seen was pretty damn awesome. To tie all together, there Ruby stood at the cliff top, scythe in hand, her cloak fluttering in the wind while rose petals left over from her Semblance fell around her.**

 **Grinning Naruto let out a whistle of appreciation at the sight.**

"I agree with the other me, very nice image and impressive feat, Whirlwind." Naruto smiled at Ruby.

"Whirlwind?" Ruby asked, tilting her head.

Naruto shrugged, "You're fast as one. Besides...sounds cool for a title with your name."

"Hmm...'Whirlwind Ruby', 'Ruby Whirlwind Rose', 'Rose Whirlwind'..." Ruby tested a few combinations of the title and her name, then beamed and nodded. Naruto was right, it WAS a cool-sounding title for her! She loved it!

 ** _'Impressive...for a ningen_ (human) _,'_ Kurama groused.**

 ** _'Stubborn old fox,'_ Naruto retorted.**

 ** _'Blond haired idiot.'_**

 ** _'Furball!'_**

 ** _'Stupid monkey!'_**

 **Everyone sweat dropped when they turned to see Naruto choking his fox while said quadruped was clawing at his face. The sweat drops grew even larger when the duo fell to the floor, Naruto throwing punches while Kurama bit and scratched.**

 **"TAKE THAT BACK YOU BAKA-KITSUNE (Idiot Fox)!"**

"You two fight like brothers." Yang noted.

Naruto nodded.

* * *

 **Naruto stood with his arms behind his head as he listened to Ozpin announce the names of the team that had finished before he and the others had. His suspicion about two pairs being placed together to make teams of four being proven correct. Him and Kurama had only raised an eyebrow at seeing another parallel between the military system of Remnant and the Shinobi villages'. It seemed that the saying of "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it" was a universal truth.**

"I wish...people always take things that already work, make it more complicated, and assume the complicated means it's better...HATE that." Blake muttered.

 **When it came time for him, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren to step up, he did so with a grin on his face.**

 **Ozpin turned to regard the four teens that stood before him, though his gaze lingered on the blond male of the team for a little bit longer than the others.**

 **"Naruto Uzumaki. Nora Valkyrie. Pyrrha Nikos. Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the gold rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as team NNPR (Napier)."**

"Napier, huh?" Ren said, wondering how Naruto's presence as opposed to Jaune's would alter the team dynamic.

 **Nora cheered and hugged Ren, who was attempting to hide his own smile. Naruto only grinned as he and Pyrrha exchanged a congratulatory look.**

 **Ozpin coughed to gain their attention again and continued, "The leader of which will be...Naruto Uzumaki."**

"Well...can't say that was undeserved with how you lead the makeshift team." Kakashi said.

 **Cheers and clapping came from the audience while Pyrrha offered Naruto a smile and a pat on the back. Ren nodded at the blond and Nora gave him a goofy salute.**

 **Naruto for his part looked neither shocked nor overly proud at hearing his being selected as the leader of the time. Instead he dropped his arms to his sides and bowed to Ozpin with a blank face, earning a raised brown from the headmaster. His teammates were just as shocked at seeing the usually smiling Uzumaki quickly become so serious. They were however relieved to see Naruto return to normal as he came up from the bow with a foxy grin on his tanned face.**

 **Walking off the stage, the now named team NNPR bumped into Ruby and her own little group. Ruby hugged Naruto and offered her own congratulations. The moment was ruined when Yang grabbed her fellow blond in a headlock and began to give him a noogie.**

Naruto gulped as Yang leered at him playfully.

 **Escaping from Yang's grip Naruto turned to look at Blake. In return the quiet teen offered Naruto a small nod of respect as her congratulations. Weiss was the odd one out as she scoffed and rolled her eyes. Naruto, already used to Weiss' type, grinned before poking her in her side, getting a surprised yelp from the Schnee heiress and laughs from everyone else.**

 **Before Weiss could do anything to get revenge Ozpin began calling out their names and Weiss stomped off with a still giggling Ruby.**

 **"And finally, Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Blake Belladonna. Yang Xiao Long. You four retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as team RWBY (Ruby), led by...Ruby Rose."**

"Good job, Ruby." the Uzumaki said.

 **Once more cheers erupted from the audience. Yang rushed to crush her sister in another of her hugs while Weiss looked oddly offended. Blake meanwhile stood there stoically, taking the news with her usual brand of apathy.**

 **As both teams RWBY and NNPR celebrated their successfully initiation and team assignments Ozpin looked on with a small smile.**

 **"Looks like things are shaping up to be...an...interesting year," Ozpin muttered quietly to himself.**

"Very." the two Beacon teams said.


	3. Chapter 3

As Kakashi ended the chapter, the masked hokage-to-be was about to ask who wanted to read when the space in the middle of the room distorted and a spiraling void formed there...one the two ninja in the reading group were quite familar with.

"Oh! I am SO looking forward to this, ttebane!" A voice cried from the distortion.

Naruto recognized the voice and his eyes went huge as the distortion expelled a man standing behind him, as well as the woman beside him, along with a third individual before it stopped.

"M-M-M-MOM?! D-D-D-DAD?!" the Uzumaki said, eyes huge, "Wha...?! But...?! How're...! You're...?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Naruto sputtered at his parents.

The members of the little book club who were from Remnent all gawked, then they started continuously shifting attention between the two redheaded women while Pyrrha merely gaped at Kushina. It was incredible to them how similar they looked with just a few shared physical features.

Long red hair. A body trained for combat. Expressive eyes (even if they were different colors).

It was definitely not something they were expecting to see.

"Told you, she reminded me of my mother." Naruto said.

The two groups from Beacon could only nod dumbly. Truth be told, it was easy to see the resemblence between Naruto and the newcomers.

The man looked scarily identical to Naruto, having the same bright, blue eyes and spiky, blond hair, but his father had jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face. His attire consisted of a blue uniform with two bands on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket, blue forehead protector, and blue sandals. Over that, he was wearing a short-sleeved long white haori over his normal attire, closed in the front by a thin, orange rope. The haori was decorated by red flame-like motifs on the edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" written vertically down the back.

As for the woman, she had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, and red hair. It reached her ankles with shoulder-length strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parted her hair to the left. She wore a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress with a wristband on her left wrist and standard shinobi sandals.

The last person wore a high-collared, white-coloured kimono held closed by a black sash. The collar of the kimono was adorned with black magatama designs, and they wore a black full-bodied suit underneath and black gloves covered their hands, along with the usual type of shinobi combat sandals that covered the instep and ankles, yet left their toes and heels exposed, the sandals being black in color.

Covering the person's face was a Hannya mask, similarly used in Noh theater, possessing two sharp bull-like horns, metallic eyes, and a leering mouth. And the mask was framed by the individual's long, straight black hair with bangs hanging on either side of their face to roughly frame their cheeks.

Naruto frowned at that.

While he was no theater expert, he had heard that representation of the Hannya mask was said to be demonic and dangerous but also sorrowful and tormented, displaying the complexity of human emotions. When the actor looked straight ahead, the mask appeared frightening and angry; when tilted slightly down, the face of the demon appeared to be sorrowful, as though crying. The Hannya mask represented the portrayal of the souls of women who have become female demons due to obsession or jealousy. Hannya masks appeared in various color tones, three in particular being significant: a white mask indicated a woman of aristocratic status, a red mask depicted a low-class woman, and the darkest red depicted true demons.

This person's Hannya mask was such a deep shade of red, it was nearly pitch black! Ok...what kind of person saw themselves as THAT demonic?!

"Oh, for the love of...take that off already, ttebane!" Kushina said to the masked person before she twitched. "Dammit! I thought I was over that stupid tic when I talked to you, Naruto!"

The person seemed to flinch as if a whip was used on them before they reached up and removed the Hannya mask to expose the face of a fair-skinned woman. Mangekyō Sharingan in the form of two overlapping trefoils of red on black looked back at Naruto sadly, then quickly looked away without a word.

"Mikoto Uchiha, too...?!" Naruto said, his head spinning. His parents he could understand, hell, it was even welcomed, but why was Sasuke's mom here with them?!

"Oh...come here, you!" Kushina said, wrapping Naruto in a hug. Naruto all but flew into the embrace.

"The one who set this all up thought it'd be a good idea to bring us in...recreated our bodies and everything." Minato said in terms of an explanation.

"What?!" Naruto and Kakashi both cried before Naruto whooped.

The Remnent teens all stared. What the heck?!

"Just say "long story" and just accept that...trust me." Minato said. The Hunters and Huntresses in training nodded. That was a LOT less confusing.

"Oh! Mom, Dad...these are some new friends I've met! That's Ruby Rose," Naruto said, pointing the girl out as he introduced her, "Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long. That's Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren."

"Pretty over-eager there with those intros, eh Naruto?" Kakashi said, snapping out of his shock at last.

"Yeah...reminds me of Dr. Oobleck on a coffiee high and Ruby on a sugar rush all at once." Yang said, smirking.

"Yang!" Ruby whined. She was NOT that bad with sugar rushes! Besides, she didn't want to look bad in front of Naruto's parents! A bad first impression was so embaressing!

"Heheh...uh, sorry...but this is the first time I've gotten to introduce my parents and my friends to one another...I'm...pretty excited about that..." he confessed sheepishly.

Kushina laughed. Oh...she understood perfectly!

Minato shook his head, haplessly amused.

Ruby smiled, delighted for Naruto to find something so simple as making introductions between his friends and family made him so happy.

"So...son, Minato told me all about what happened the last time he saw you, so what's happened since?" Kushina said.

Naruto blushed. Figured his mom would want to know what had gone down in the fourth of the Ninja World Wars and how he'd been.

He shrugged, "Been better, been worse...Kakashi-sensei's gonna be the Sixth Hokage, and hey, least I'm not Madara. Guy must've been pretty embaressed having a genin kick his sorry butt." the whiskered teen told his mom.

Kushina froze. Then, a desturbingly blank face on, the redhead rounded on the masked, former student of her husband. "See Konoha's forgotten what the concept of a field promotion is." Kushina frowned, her arms folded, her brow twitching, and her foot tapping. Clearly a silent demand for explination.

The former Copy Ninja gulped and chuckled nervously, he knew THAT look. And it never ended well being on the receiving end of it. The man remembered that much.

"For the record, Tsunade DID wanna promote him more than once...but Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Danzo Shimura...well...you know those three, and the usual song and dance when it comes to wanting to keep people with Naruto's and your old condition close to home, Lady Kushina..." he said, trying to keep from going in his pants from sheer terror.

"Ah." It was funny how one sound could convay such sheer distaste. "Asshole politics and being kept at the bottom of the barrel no matter your accomplishments, all so those same assholes can keep you close to serve as their attack dog... oh, the _joys_ and occupational hazards of the life of a jinchūriki...to think I'd almost forgotten..." Kushina said as her brow knitted and her lips pursed.

Mikoto flinched violently at that.

"...I will be sure to fix it, though...!" The masked man yelped, seeing the Uzumaki woman's hair rise up like nine fox tails. That was ALWAYS the only warning sign when Kushina Uzumaki was utterly pissed about something!

"Well, enough about that, mom! We'er all here together, why waste it getting mad about stuff like that?" Naruto said, his voice cutting through her anger and she quickly agreed as Naruto sat down along with the trio of new arrivals. Mikoto keeping Kakashi between herself and the Uzumaki Family, also being sure she got the end of their couch furthest away from them.

"Well? Who's reading next?!" Naruto asked eagerly. Having his mother and father around had sky-rocketed his mood.

Ren shook his head with a small grin, "Give it here."


	4. Chapter 4

**Naruto was a little surprised when he saw his team's reactions, or lack thereof, when they found out that they'd all be sharing a room together. Although thinking about it, Nora was far too bubbly and innocent to really care about stuff like that and Ren was generally apathetic to most things in life. Pyrrha didn't look at all bothered by it either which he guessed was due to her being more focused on other things like actually training and getting to know her new friends.**

Nora smiled, Red shrugged and Pyrrha nodded in agreement with that. It was true.

 **Of course Naruto could care less. Having Jiraiya as a godfather and mentor meant that he was pretty familiar with the female form.**

Naruto gulped as all the females present, with the exception of his mother and Mikoto, looked at him.

 **Besides that though, there were plenty of times he had to share a tent or even a bed with a female teammate on a mission and getting all flustered because of something as insignificant as gender was pretty immature, especially on a mission when you could very well die if you were not on guard at all times.**

"Huh...never thought about things that way..." Yang said as the Beacon students all looked thoughtful about that point. Not that any of them were going to use it as a reason to start acting indecent about things like that, but the reasoning of priorities on dangerous assignments still stood.

 **Even still he and the others stared questioningly at the current arrangement of furniture. All the beds were smooshed together in one corner with a dresser for each shoved into another corner. That wasn't even taking into account their own personal belongings either.**

 **The room was clearly not big enough to hold four people and their things properly.**

The Becon students nodded, it didn't make much sense to them either.

 **"Uhh...how the heck do they expect us to all fit like this?" Naruto asked aloud as he scratched his head in wonder.**

 **Pyrrha shrugged and Ren offered a thoughtful frown as his response.**

 **"Ooo! What if it's so that when the zombie apocalypse happens the zombies won't be able to make it around all this furniture!"**

 **Pyrrha was quietly giggling at Nora's odd response while Ren, more than used to his friend's eccentricities, only sighed and shook his head. Naruto couldn't resist and just laughed at the hammer wielding girl's oddness. Nora herself continued to smile that goofy smile of hers.**

 ** _'Odd girl's stupidity aside,_**

"I'm not stupid, mean ol' fox!" Nora pouted.

"Being grumpy is more or less Kurama's default way of dealing with new people, don't take it personally, Nora." Naruto reassured.

Kushina nodded...although, to be fair, the way the sealing corps in Konoha had set up Kushina's own seal hadn't helped with Kurama's attitude towards her. So his being grumpy to her was to be expected.

 ** _I say you just toss out two of the beds. You bunk with the hot red head_**

Naruto and Pyrrha went red with embaressment as Jaune started grinding his teeth.

Kushina, on the other hand, started looking critically at Pyrrha, her expression thoughtful as her hand went to her chin, the elbow supported by the other hand and amethyst eyes washing over the Invincible Girl. The elder redhead hummed, making Pyrrha squirm.

 ** _and Mr. Life Is Oh So Boring over there can probably get the weird vixen to bang a smile onto his face,'_ Kurama spoke nonchalantly.**

Now Ren and Nora both flushed.

Yang hooted. "Foxy...do me a favor and find a way to tell Kurama I like his style!" she told Naruto.

"YANG!" Ruby cried, red-faced.

Naruto sighed as he could tell Kurama was smirking within the seal...that was going to be "fun" to deal with later.

"Thanks a ton, Yang..." he muttered sourly under his breath; only Blake and the other konoha ninjas, having enhanced hearing, picking it up.

 **Naruto began to sputter as a blush spread across his face. He'd be lying if he said the thought wasn't tempting.**

Pyrrha flushed deeply at that.

"Sorry!" Naruto said with a red face of his own.

Minato and Kushina shared a look as they smiled, trying not to laugh. Guess the saying about fathers and sons was true.

 **Pyrrha was very attractive and he doubted Ren and Nora would mind the arrangement either. Though the thought of the two doing the naked tango was hilarious and he had to stop himself from ending up on the floor with tears of laughter streaming down his face.**

 **He did not want to explain to anybody why he was suddenly dying of laughter.**

"Oh...you'll die all right, just not from laughter!" Ren growled as he and Nora glared at Naruto, rubbing their knuckles and still red with embaressment.

 **Noticing that Pyrrha was sending him a questioning look, no doubt wondering why he was suddenly blushing, Naruto managed to pull himself together.**

 **After a moment's thought he snapped his fingers as the proverbial light bulb went off, "Bunk beds!"**

"Hey! That's our idea!" Ruby said.

 **The other members of NNPR appeared to mull the idea over a bit before they gave their response.**

 **"It would be the most efficient way to make this work," Pyrrha offered.**

Team RWBY nodded, grinning. They could testify to that!

 **Ren nodded along in agreement with the redheaded teen's statement. Nora on the other hand was the most vocal about her opinion, "Yay! Ren! We're finally getting those bunk beds we've wanted since we were five! Maybe next we can go get that chinchilla I've always wanted! Or maybe a pet fox!...wait...no Naruto already has one. Hmm..."**

"What to get as a pet...?" Nora frowned thoughtfully at that.

 **Ren put hand to face in what seemed to be a perfectly executed performance of the universally known "Face Palm no jutsu". Then again having Nora as a friend probably gave him a lot of practice.**

"Like you wouldn't believe..." Ren muttered under his breath.

"Huh? What was that, Ren?" Nora asked, turning to her long-time friend in confusion.

 **Naruto began to wonder how Ren didn't have a single gray hair by now. Stroking his non-existent beard in thought, the blonde was hit with an epiphany.**

 **"That's why you dyed those parts of your hair pink! To hide your gray hairs!"**

Everyone turned to look at Ren, snickering at that as well as seeing Ren's brow twitching in annoyance.

"I can see it." Yang smirked.

 **"Take that back! Ren does not have a single gray hair! I should know, I was the one who dyed his hair," Nora huffed in an effort to defend her long time friend.**

 **As Nora and Naruto began a heated debate on hair color of all things, Pyrrha was torn between laughing her butt off or feeling sorry for Ren who looked to be close to smacking his head on a wall.**

 **Before much else could happen the familiar voice of a certain scythe wielding girl's voice rang throughout the halls, "Uhh...TO CLASS!"**

"Thank you, Ruby..." Ren muttered, visibly relaxing.

 **The four members of team NNPR turned to look at the clock at the wall and seeing that they only had five minutes to make it to class on time, began to hurriedly grab their school supplies before rushing out the door, feet behind the members of an equally rushing team RWBY.**

"Why'd they not give you guys any time to figure out the campus after orientation?" Kakashi asked.

The Remnent teens all shrugged. But they agreed they should've gotten at least a day to get use to the school's layout.

 **As the two teams kept pace with each other in their mad dash to get to class on time Naruto casually struck up a conversation with his fellow team leader, "So is your room as cramped as ours?"**

Ruby shook her head, grinning, as were her teammates.

 **Ruby smiled upon seeing her blond friend and shook her head, "Nope! Not anymore!"**

 **Naruto chuckled at the bubbly girl's response and replied, "What'd you do, toss out your beds?"**

 **Again Ruby shook her head as they veered around a corner, narrowly avoiding a random passerby as they did so, "Nope! We just made bunk beds!"**

 **"I guess what they say is true, great minds think alike!" Naruto replied back with a grin.**

Ruby and Naruto grinned at one another and gave each other a thumbs-up.

Yang blinked. Ruby was never usually this social so easily with people. Her little sister was very socially awkward, and although Ruby had no trouble interacting with friends, she did have trouble actually _making_ them, as well as being a self-admitted dork when it comes to weapons, and once admitted that seeing new weapons was, in Ruby's words, "like meeting new people, but better" since she understood weaponry so easily while she had trouble with understanding people.

Yang made a quick mental note to herself to try finding a way to ensure Naruto went back to Beacon with them when they all got out of here. The guy had a gift for helping Ruby feel relaxed about things...even enough to where she could act like this.

 **Our blonde protagonist could faintly hear Weiss scoff from behind them and mutter something about them being nuts.**

"Somebody's just jelous." Naruto said while Ruby giggled.

"Am not!" The heiress snapped, going red in the face.

 **In response Naruto just turned back and childishly stuck his tongue out at the white haired Schnee heiress.**

 **However his attention was diverted when he heard Pyrrha's voice call out to him, "Naruto! Look out!"**

 **Turning around the blond Uzumaki cursed under his breath as he realized he was on a collision course with a random female student who didn't realize that she had a group of eight speeding teens headed towards her.**

 **Deciding to show off a bit Naruto lowered himself closer to the floor before opening his arms, scooping the shocked teen into his arms.**

 **"Sorry 'bout this!" He called as he casually tossed the girl over his head like a sack of potatoes.**

 **The girl screamed as she feared that she was going to be trampled on by the other teens behind the blond, but was surprised when she was caught in the arms of a sheepishly grinning Pyrrha.**

 **"We really are sorry about this," the redhead said before depositing her in a nearby hallway, out of the way of the rest of teams RWBY and NNPR.**

Minato and Kushina howled, gripping their sides, "Oh man...! Did that just...?!" Kushina laughed.

"Bit of role reversal, but yeah! _You_ were who did the scoop and toss, _I_ was always the aplogy and set down!" Minato said.

"Dude...your fokes are awesome...!" Yang told Naruto.

"No duh! Tell me something I don't already know!" Naruto beamed back at her.

 **For a few seconds the still frightened and astonished girl stood stock still, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened to her in the span of a few seconds. As her mind realized what had happened she robotically turned on her foot and began to make her way back down the hallway she had come from, deciding that it would be best if she never spoke of what had just happened.**

* * *

 **The two teams eventually made it to class on time without further incident. Minutes into the class however most of them were wishing that they hadn't made it on time.**

 **Professor Port, a short and rather large old man, was boring beyond measure.**

Naruto slumped over and started to snore.

"Uhhh...he ok?" Jaune asked.

The whiskered teen's mother nodded, "He's fine...just bord. He's a kinesthetic learner; he learns by doing and witnessing; not by reading or explanation. It was a major factor in his earlier training when he was younger. Most teachers went over theory and only told what would need to be done. Naruto's never really understood what use any technical words, theories, paperwork, test scores, and lecturers could have in the field."

"Ah...better at butt-kick than book work." Nora summed up.

Kushina nodded.

Ruby, not wanting her new friend to miss anything, armed herself with one of the pillows from the couch she sat at, which she tossed and it struck Naruto in the face, jolting him awake.

Seeing Ruby flash him the victory sign, Naruto playfully raised and shook a fist, "Oh, you are so asking for it, Whilwind!"

"Bring it, Uzumaki!" the silver-eyed, fifteen-year-old girl said challengingily, a playful shine in her eyes.

Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, and Kakashi all shared a look at Ruby's declaration. Poor, doomed child...

 **Naruto was trying his damnedest to stay awake while Kurama had actually taken the train straight to snooze-ville and was lightly snoring away on his container's lap. Pyrrha was attempting to look interested, but it was clear that even she thought the professor was an absolute bore. Nora was not even trying to look interested and was instead doodling away inside her notebook. Ren looked even more apathetic than was his norm, something Naruto thought was scientifically impossible.**

 **The only mildly interesting thing that had happened during the professor's lecture was his not so subtle attempt at flirting with Yang. Naruto was honestly surprised his fellow blonde hadn't straight up punched the guy's lights out,**

"Would have if I could've gotten away with it." Yang confessed.

 **but that was him. Nonetheless he considered Yang a friend and made a mental note to offer her his services as the infamous Prankster King of Konoha.**

Yang looked interested at that. Prank King, huh? She wondered just how good he was.

 **If he could get away with putting itching powder on the robes of the Hokage, the so called strongest shinobi of Konoha who had a near 24/7 guard of highly trained shinobi from the ANBU Black Ops Division,**

"What? Can't help that I'm just that good!" Naruto said, smirking as the other teens all gave him looks of shock.

Minato and Kakashi looked at Naruto, unsure of if they should be disappointed with him or with Sarutobi and the ANBU guarding him at that, Kakashi making a note to step up on the standards for the Black Ops.

Kushina, for her part, merely snickered. That would've been fun seeing the fallout of.

 **then just imagine the pranks he could pull on some old Huntsman.**

"Ok...Foxy, you are offically hired when we need to get back at someone." Yang said, impressed.

Ruby, however, felt herself grow, if possible, paler as Naruto leaned back and smirked at her as she realized she'd just put a bullseye on her back for him as far as retaliation for that pillow she'd nailed him with. She didn't wanna get pranked!

 **Pyrrha sweat dropped when she noticed that the formerly half asleep Naruto was now wide awake and furiously writing notes of some kind with a very mischievous grin stretching across his face.**

 **Everyone's attention was drawn to Weiss though when the professor asked who thought themselves to have the traits of a true Huntsman or Huntress with the Schnee heiress promptly raising her hand.**

Weiss winced. Oh boy...she remembered this...And her interaction with Ruby afterwards. The feincer was NOT looking forward to reliving that shameful moment!

 **The professor took this in stride and had Weiss go and retrieve her battle gear. When she returned, there in the middle of the class was a cage holding something that definitely wanted out.**

 **As Naruto watched the rest of Weiss' team cheer her on, his eyes narrowed when he saw the rapier wielder grow frustrated. Naruto began to to pay even more attention as Weiss faced down the Boarbatusk that Professor Port had released from the cage. While he hadn't known the Schnee heiress for long he knew her style of fighting very well. The way she fought depended heavily upon her speed and ability to dance around her opponent, all while keeping calm and in control of the flow of battle.**

Weiss blinked. That was actually an astute assessment of her combat style. Seemed Uzumaki was worth hearing out during this.

 **However it seemed that something, or rather someone, was making her exceedingly frustrated, throwing her fighting style off.**

 **It was becoming increasingly clear who the source of said frustration was as the minutes ticked by and Weiss grew sloppier and sloppier with her movements. Evidently it was her own team leader, Ruby.**

Ruby squirmed in her seat.

"Figured that if you couldn't fight along with her, you could at least root for her and provide moral support?" Naruto asked with a smile, he'd done the same during the preliminary matches of the Chunin Exams, after all.

The scythe-weilder nodded. "I didn't mean to be a destraction, I just...wanted to support my friend and teammate however I could..." she said, looking down.

She looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Naruto had gotten up and was right in front of her.

"Ruby...a great leader always cares about and supports those around them however they can. You weren't a destraction, you just wanted to make sure Weiss succeeded, it's why your team can count on you: you know they're the best and want to help make sure everyone knows it by seeing them prove they are. THAT'S what you were doing, is all."

Ruby felt her eyes sting with greatful tears and she hugged Naruto, She just felt touched at his reassurance and understanding. It meant a lot to her. Sure it was a bit unnerving how he understood her so easily, but he HAD pointed out he'd been in the same kinds of positions as her before.

They were similar, and from that came how he could figure out her, her motovations, and her actions so well. It left her feeling greatful she got to know someone like this.

After a moment, Ruby took a deep breath and released him with a smile, "Thanks, Naruto..."

Kushina and Minato took the whole scene in with a strong sense of pride over the kind of person their child had become as he sat back down.

Nodding, Ren returned his attention to the book with a small smile.

 **Naruto had a feeling he knew exactly why as well. Like he and Kurama had said before, the Schnee heiress was like a female version of his old teammate Sasuke Uchiha.**

Mikoto perked up at that slightly. Interested in hearing how the Schee was similar to her younger son.

 **Both were born into highly prestigious families and were raised getting almost everything they wanted handed to them on a golden platter. As such they grew to be arrogant, thinking themselves better than everybody else simply because of their upbringing and family name.**

Weiss cringed. That was an issue she'd had in the begining.

Mikoto nodded, still not saying a word. The Uchiha were a bit imfamous for acting that way, and it certainly hadn't done them any favors...

 **Naruto didn't like to admit it, but there was a good reason for that arrogance.**

 **It seemed that like Sasuke, Weiss had taken advantage of her wealth and family name, getting herself the best combat tutors that money could buy.**

 **It certainly paid off.**

 **While Weiss was far and away from being as strong as some of the shinobi he knew or even some of the Huntsmen and Huntresses he had met, she was still very much so ahead of her age. Ruby, Blake, and Yang were all strong in their own right, but Weiss was as well. Backed by her formal training and such, Weiss was a formidable opponent and would only come to grow stronger...if she allowed herself to.**

That point further caught the heiress's interest. She was always looking further improve, after all, and thus far, Naruto's observations had been quite accurate. A bit more advice and further opinions had never hurt. And if he was making compairisons to people he knew, then he had obviously seen both the before and after as far as their development, and knew what to look for as far as what had aided and what had hindered them.

 **It was true that she, again, like Sasuke, would grow to a level of strength that most could only dream of achieving thanks to her family name and wealth, but she would eventually hit a plateau of her own making. Only by opening up her mind and ridding herself of that arrogance would she be able to reach her proverbial peak.**

Weiss nodded thoughtfully, making a note to thank Professor Port for that reality check she had gotten about her acting stuck up and spoiled being a henderence.

 **After witnessing the little episode between Weiss and Ruby and Port's subsequent call for class to end, Naruto quietly collected his things and gave his team a look, letting them know that he would see them in a while. The four teens just nodded their heads, knowing that their leader would want to help in any way he could.**

Team RWBY blinked, then all shot Naruto a thumbs-up.

 **As Naruto caught up to Ruby and Weiss, he caught the tail end of their conversation. Hearing what Weiss said Naruto had to resist the urge to go up to Weiss and physically knock some sense into her.**

 **"Ozpin made a mistake."**

"WHAT?!" Yang demanded, her eyes turning a blazing red and her hair flaring gold with flames coming off of her as she rounded on Weiss, who looked outright terrified. "WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSSED TO MEAN?!" the elder of the two sisters demanded.

"Ok...red eyes, flames, and bad temper...maybe we were wrong; seems Yang's more Sasuke's type..." Naruto muttered, Kakashi nodding in agreement.

 **Naruto could see just how much that hurt Ruby to hear from Weiss, someone she considered a friend and he was sorely tempted to go up to Ruby and console her.**

"Why didn't you?" Blake asked with a small frown aimed at the orange-favoring blonde. Ruby was her friend, after all, so seeing Naruto seeming to refuse to support her when she needed it made her upset.

 **However seeing the silver haired headmaster of Beacon only feet away from Ruby, Naruto knew she would be in good hands**

"Ohh..." the ex-White Fang member said in realization. That made sense. There wasn't a need for him to get involved with Ozpin there rather than if it was that Naruto's other was going to ignore Ruby's distress.

"Ozpin was really great with helping me about that. Could tell he meant it and believed in me." Ruby smiled.

 **and instead decided to look for Weiss. He was not just going to sit back and watch a team fall into the same faults that had caused his own team to shatter into pieces.**

"Yikes." Jaune muttered.

"Old team before Beacon?" Pyrrah asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah..." Naruto said.

* * *

 **Weiss sighed to herself and began to contemplate what she had said to Ruby. Part of her regretted saying what she had,**

"It's ok, Weisse. I forgive you." Ruby smiled.

Weiss tried to smile, but guilt over how she had acted back then didn't help her feel too good.

 **knowing that while part of it was her true feelings, most of it was the result of pent up frustration. Misplaced frustration at that.**

 **True she was angry at Ruby and part of her was questioning why Ozpin had made the younger teen team leader, but she could have said so in a much more thought out and easier to swallow manner. Not in a way that had no doubt crushed Ruby. Ruby who really wasn't at all to blame.**

Yang growled, cracking her knuckles and Weiss gulped.

 **As Weiss made to look for Ruby**

"Wanted to aplogize...I was out of line..." the white-themed girl said.

 **she was surprised to bump into the solid wall of flesh that was Naruto Uzumaki. Not in the mood for the usually cheerful blond, Weiss opened her mouth to tell the blonde haired Uzumaki to leave her alone, but her mouth was quickly snapped shut upon seeing the look in the teen's eyes.**

 **Gone was the normally grinning and goofy blond, instead there was a decidedly very angry and frustrated Uzumaki.**

"That look doesn't seem like it belongs on your face, Foxy." Yang said.

"Aware of that..." Naruto sighed. If this was going where he thought it was, he really wished Mikoto wasn't here to hear this...

 **"Follow me," was all that Naruto said.**

 **Weiss would have normally brushed off the teen with her a scoff, but she found that the look in his eye compounded with the roughness in his voice made her extremely hesitant to disobey him. As such, she quietly followed behind Naruto as he led her out to a balcony that overlooked not only Beacon, but the whole kingdom of Vale.**

 **For a minute neither said anything, Naruto with his arms crossed staring out at the city in the distance while Weiss quietly and impatiently waited for the blond to speak. When her patience was all but gone and her irritation steadily building, the Schnee heiress was ready to simply turn around walk away from Naruto.**

 **The low voice of Naruto put that thought process to a stop though, "I had a teammate named Sasuke Uchiha. You remind me of him quite a bit. Both of you were born into prestigious families, both of you excel in combat, and both of you also view those around you as insignificant, or as obstacles in the way of your goals at best."**

Weiss flinched as if the words burned her. She knew she had problems when she was starting out, but had she really been that horrible?

Mikoto shifted in her seat. Hearing this wasn't easy for her.

 **Weiss raised an eyebrow as she saw Naruto sigh and his shoulders fall. Still refusing to look at her he continued, "We realized how similar we were in some ways and forged a bond. Both of us were orphaned at a young age, people never saw us for who were, only seeing the titles and masks we put on, and most importantly, we had a goal that we trained day and night to achieve. In time we became like brothers. Then something happened. One of our village's greatest traitors offered him power, power to achieve his goal and Sasuke took it. From there things spiraled out of control. Sasuke abandoned our village, he turned his back on our bond, and he tried numerous times to kill me while I foolishly fought to bring him back home."**

"HE WHAT?!" Minato and Kushina both roared, bolting to their feet as the people from Remnent all gasped in horror at hearing what Sasuke had done.

Mikoto flinched and looked down, ashamed. Wasn't there ANYONE the Uchiha Clan's fixation on self-interests _HADN'T_ screwed over?!

 **Weiss gasped in shock as Naruto wove his tale. To her it didn't make sense. What could possibly make a person turn on someone they viewed as a brother? What possible gain was there that could justify such a betrayal?**

"No kidding...guy sounds like a monster..." Weiss said. "Wanting to reach his goals, I get. But KILLING the people that matter to you? Makes no sense!"

Naruto quickly stood, walked over to Weiss, and gave her a quick bop on the head.

"Ouch! What in the...?! You comfort Ruby, but I get hit?!" the heiress snapped.

Naruto frowned and pointed at Mikoto.

"Ohh...related?" The Schee realized.

"Try mother!" Naruto hissed in a low whisper.

Wiess gawked, then turned back to Mikoto with a gulp. Oh crud...calling someone a monster with their mother present...she was going to meed to aplogize for THAT later! No wonder Naruto had hit her.

"Ok...so I deserved that, then..." the white-themed girl admitted.

"Sorry I had to do it, Weiss." Naruto told her.

 **Nonetheless the Schnee heiress waited with bated breath, wondering how this tale ended.**

 **Taking a deep breath Naruto continued, "I will say this, Sasuke got what he wanted in the end. He got the power he had always wanted. With it he was able to finally achieve his goal and kill the man responsible for his family's death. However he realized that he was still left feeling empty. He had sacrificed everything; his morals, his friendships, and his sanity to achieve this goal and for what? A selfish notion of revenge?"**

"Friends, home, future, sanity, morals...my aplogies to you for saying this about your son, Miss Mikoto, but, as someone that's seen how that path goes and what it makes people become...what didn't this guy consider expendable in exchange for the few seconds of satisfaction obsession with revenge gives?" Blake asked.

Sheesh...Sasuke Uchiha sounded like the human equivilent of Adam Taurus. It left Blake wondering how a meeting between the two would go...then she shuddered as she recalled how Adam had turned into a remorseless and sadistic killer that was willing to slaughter innocent people, deciding she'd rather NOT know the answer to that question of Adam meeting his human version of himself...

Mikoto sank lower into herself at the Faunus' question.

 **Feeling the emotional weight of the situation, Weiss asked the only question on her mind, "Why are you telling me all of this?"**

"No fooling about that." Weiss asked.

 **Naruto finally turned to look at Weiss and she was shocked to see his sapphire blue eyes looking at her with untold amounts of regret and sorrow.**

 **"Because Sasuke was like a brother to me. I chased after him, intent on bringing him back home, thinking that I could put him back on the right path all the while watching as our team and friendship was destroyed beyond recognition. I'm telling you this, because I refuse to see it happen again.**

"Good answer." Jaune said.

 **Weiss, you're strong, you're smart, and you are gifted, no doubt about that. But the minute you let that all go to your head, you become something else entirely. Just because things didn't go the way you wanted them to, the way you thought they should, doesn't mean you lash out at the people who care for you. You wanna prove to Ozpin and everyone else that you are an amazing Huntress? Then show them, but not at the price of friendships and who you are."**

"...You have a very good son." Pyrrha told Minato and Kushina, getting beaming smiles in responce.

 **Again silence engulfed the duo, Weiss lost in her own thoughts while Naruto took some time to recompose himself. He hadn't told Weiss everything that had happened with Sasuke, but still it was enough to dredge up old feelings of failure and regret. To this day Naruto didn't know if that regret was over not being able to bring Sasuke back or that he himself risked so much on a fool's errand.**

Mikoto rubbed her eyes. She was really hating this. It was painful hearing Sasuke had turned out this way.

 **The Schnee heiress let out a yelp of surprise when Naruto popped up in her vision, their faces inches apart, and that same old goofy grin of his on his face now, "You got it...Princess?"**

The Dust Heiress smiled, "Loud and clear."

 **Weiss huffed as Naruto walked off laughing, hands crossed behind his head. Even still there was a small but noticeable smile on her face. As Naruto disappeared around the corner, the Schnee heiress spared the setting sun one last look before venturing off, an apology working its way through her mind.**

 **From a balcony above the two teens a certain silver haired headmaster and his blonde haired deputy headmistress turned and began to walk away from the scene.**

 **"Ozpin, you have to realize that we can't just let this boy continue without finding out more about him. He has too many secrets to allow him to be around the students," Glynda spoke in an urgent voice.**

"...I really don't like her..." Naruto frowned.

 **Ozpin seemed unperturbed by the day's events, calmly sipping his coffee.**

 **"He hides no more secrets than you or I do and yet we are responsible for molding these young ones more than he is. Would it not be hypocritical of us to pry into his life in such a manner when we would not readily let him do the same?"**

 **Glynda looked offended at the veiled insult but was quick to reply, "This is different Ozpin. We are adults-"**

 **The headmaster was quick to cut Glynda off, "And they are not? We are entrusting them with the safety of Vale and its people. We allow them to waltz around carrying weapons of unbelievable danger and we trust them not to misuse them. It is only fair that we also trust them, and specifically young Naruto, to know when it is appropriate to keep secrets."**

"Man, this Ozpin guy's actually pretty awesome..." Naruto said, awed as he grinned.

The group of eight teens from Remnent all smiled and nodded, Ozpin WAS awesome like that!

 **Glynda was quiet, finding no response to Ozpin's small speech.**

 **As the two walked back to their own offices, neither saw a shadow part from the walls, falling to show a certain blond haired teen.**

 ** _'It's funny, Ozpin reminds me not only of Kakashi-sensei but Sarutobi-jiji (_ Old Man/Grandpa Sarutobi) _as well.'_**

"Ok...really liking that mix of character..." Naruto admitted. The other ninjas all nodded, Kakashi having asmile tug at his lips under his mask.

 ** _'Yes, yes I get it kit, there are so many parallels between here and Konoha. Enough now. I'm tired and would like to lay on a comfortable bed for once,'_ Kurama huffed.**

 **Naruto just stuck his tongue at Kurama, _'Yeah, yeah, whatever you lazy ball of fur.'_**

* * *

 **Finally after a long day of boring and useless, to Naruto, classes,**

"Death to Common Core education!" Naruto declaired.

"Death! Death! DEEEEEAAAAATH!" Ruby and Nora both cheered in agreement!

 **team NNPR met back up in their shared bedroom and as one, collapsed onto their individual beds with a groan of relief.**

 **Naruto was the one to realize something though, "Guys...we still have to make the bunk beds and get situated."**

 **The rest of team NNPR responded with a single unanimous groan of frustration.**

"Yeah...not giving time to get used to the school's layout, then making it so you have to do after an exhausting day of drudgery...school's sadistic like that..." Yang said.

 **Deciding to take the lead as the captain of the team, Naruto flipped onto his back and spoke aloud, "How about this, we take this time now to at least unpack a little and get to know each other and tomorrow morning we wake up a little earlier and at least make the bunk beds. Sound good?"**

"As good as it's gonna get." Jaune sighed.

 **Getting a bout of that hyperactive energy she was known for, Nora jumped up and seated herself cross legged on her bed and replied with a salute, "Sounds like a plan Captain Naruto!"**

Naruto chuckled.

 **The blond grinned as he heard Nora refer to him as the captain. Sure it wasn't Hokage, but it was good enough for him.**

 **Ren slowly rose from his face down position and calmly seated himself on his own bed, Pyrrha doing the same whilst freeing her red locks from her usual ponytail and taking off the less than comfortable school blazer.**

 **As the red head shook her head to rid herself of any remaining knots in her hair, Naruto had to force himself to look away, fearing that he would make a fool of himself if he stared any longer.**

Kakashi giggled pervertedly as Naruto glared.

Kushina shared a look with her husband before breaking out into a knowing smile.

 **Clearing his throat to hide his embarrassment Naruto began, "Well I guess I'll go first then. I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, Kurama, my precious people, and the color orange. I dislike how long it takes for ramen to be made, arrogant jerks, and bigots. My dream for the future is to make my precious people proud and live a happy life."**

Everyone nodded at Naruto's words. That really wasn't asking much. Just wanting a good life.

 **Pyrrha smiled as she heard Naruto's dream. It was an admirable goal while still being relatively simple and down to earth. Knowing what had happened to her friend's precious people though made her frown internally. All Naruto had left of his home and his loved ones were memories.**

The five Konoha ninja winced. Story or not, that was still horrible.

 **Silently the red headed teen vowed to herself to make sure Naruto was able to achieve his dream and find more precious people to live it with.**

"Thanks Pyrrha..." Naruto smiled, which she returned.

Kushina looked at Nikos appraisingly again, a light, greatful smile on her face as she did so.

 **"Oh! Oh! Me next!" Nora exclaimed as she fidgeted in her seat while raising her hand like a five year old on a sugar rush.**

"Or Ruby." Yang teased.

"Yang!" the Rose cried to her half-sister.

 **Laughing at his teammate's hyperactivity Naruto just pointed at her, "Go ahead Nora."**

 **With her goofy grin on Nora spoke, "My name is Nora Valkyrie! I like Ren's pancakes, Ren, my family, and the color pink! I dislike mean people and people who hurt my friends and family. My dream is to live in my own castle and rule as queen of all pancakes!"**

"Well...you certainly are...ambitious...Nora." Minato said.

 **Naruto and Pyrrha chuckled upon hearing Nora's dream while Ren quietly shook his head. Nora was definitely an odd one, but that was what made her so fun to be around.**

Nora laughed and flashed a victory sign.

 **Seeing as Ren was being his typical quiet self, Pyrrha chose to take her turn, "My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I like baklava, my family, making new friends, and the color red. I dislike people who would commit atrocious acts like bullying, and people who only see others as tools for their own benefit. My dream is to become a teacher and maybe have a family of my own."**

 ** _'Naruto, meet Pyrrha, you're perfect match,'_ Kurama joked.**

Both Naruto and Pyrrha jerked back, faces so red they were nearly a charred black in shade.

Jaune openly snarled.

"...Kushina..." Minato said warningly, turning to his wife and already knowing what she was thinking.

"B-But..." Kushina said, whining. She pouted at him. "Grandbabies! They're so cute and cuddly and fun to spoil!"

Both Naruto and Pyrrha made a strangling noise as they both felt really dizzy at that.

"...New role model, confirmed!" Yang snickered. Kushina was great!

 **Naruto coughed to hide his blush. As much as he hated to admit it, the fox was right. Pyrrha was damn close to being his dream girl. In a weird way she also sounded a lot like his own mother, minus the whole short temper thing.**

"Excuse me...?" Kushina said rounding on her son.

 **In that regard Pyrrha was the total opposite to his mother who was infamous for her short fuse and subsequent violent outbursts.**

Kakashi nodded at that...until he noticed Pyrrah giving him a look a little TOO similar to that of his blonde student's mother, her eyes blazing and her fingers twitched as if longing to lash out, and she was muttering under her breath as she glared at the scarecrow. He caught the words "polarity", "iron", "blood", and "evisceration".

 **Thankfully before anyone could question Naruto's sudden cough, Ren decided it was his turn to to speak, "My name is Lie-Ren. I enjoy Jasmine tea, meditating, and certain people. I dislike those who interrupt my meditation time. My dream is to simply live my life as best I can."**

"Shikamaru would like you." Naruto said to Ren, who raised a brow in response.

 ** _'Yup, definitely needs to get laid,'_ Naruto nodded to himself.**

 ** _'Couldn't agree more kit. The weird vixen would probably do it if you worded it the right way,'_ Kurama chimed in.**

 **The other members of team NNPR were left with questions when they saw Naruto and Kurama share a look, the same mischievous smirk on their faces. For some reason Ren felt that he was somehow going to have to sleep with one eye open around them from now on.**

"One eye open and armed..." Ren muttered.

 **Letting out a yawn that spread around the room's occupants, Naruto stretched and said, "Well I say we let the girls shower first. Whoever isn't showering starts unpacking their things, at least the essentials like clothes. Since tomorrow is a short day we'll head out to one of the training fields and get to know each other's fighting style and such."**

The Remnent teens nodded. That sounded good to them.

 **As Naruto and Ren got to unpacking some of their things, Nora and Pyrrha reached an agreement that Pyrrha would shower first then Nora would. The bubbly teen joked that maybe Ren should take her spot though, what with him having much longer hair than her. Everyone had a good laugh at Ren's expense while the raven haired teen simply sighed to himself.**

 **Soon though the room was quiet, with the exception of Nora humming to herself something that sounded vaguely like "I'm queen of the castle~".**

 **A few minutes later and Naruto had already unsealed some of his belongings from the scrolls he had on him, making sure that he did so as discreetly as possible. He was probably going to tell them about his Fuinjutsu after classes the next day, but he didn't really want to surprise them by pulling clothes and such out of a seal on a scroll. Even he knew it was a little odd to see.**

"Wait, what?! You can ...you jerk, that could fix our room's space issue!" Nora pouted.

 **However he had stumbled upon a book that he had forgotten was sealed into one of his scrolls and was soon absorbed in his own little world. Kurama had long since claimed a pillow and was curled into a ball snoozing away.**

 **Being so into the book, Naruto jumped a little when he felt a soft hand touch his arm.**

Blake and Ruby shared a smile, getting so deep into a book that happened to you...that had happened to the both of them plenty of times.

 **Turning he saw Pyrrha smiling at him and was his usual around the red head, he began to blush. No one could really blame him either. With her hair let down and looking especially silky after her shower and clothed in a simple red tank top and black gym shorts, Pyrrha was looking especially beautiful. That wasn't to say that she didn't always look extremely attractive, but even in her school clothes she seemed to exude this air of formality.**

Naruto buried his face in his hands with an embaressed moan. This could NOT be happening!

Minato pat him on the back. "I know, son...trust me, I know..."

Kushina smirked at her husband.

 **Clad in only her pajamas and with a soft smile on her face, Pyrrha looked less like "The Invincible Girl" and more like Pyrrha Nikos, the girl.**

Pyrrha blinked at that. Huh...sounded pretty nice, less formal and more casual made her seem regular. She'd have to remember that one.

 **Given she could probably still kick someone's ass six ways to Sunday even in her pajamas, but that was just Pyrrha.**

Team JNPR with the exception of the redhead in question nodded, finding that a justified point.

 **"You look...great Pyrrha," Naruto muttered more to himself.**

 **As per the laws of the universe however, Pyrrha heard it loud and clear, causing a blush to spring up on her face.**

"Sorry son...law of the universe that women are accute to hearing compliments." Kushina giggled. Oh, this was just too cute!

 **"Thanks," she shyly replied.**

 **Normally she would be able to simply brush compliments like that off, being more than used to getting them thanks to her fame, but with Naruto it was a little different. She knew that despite his secrets, he was an honest and good guy who always put the needs of his friends above his own. She also knew that Naruto never said anything with an ulterior motive, at least to those he trusted.**

Teams RWBY and JNPR shoot Naruto respectful looks. Those were all qualities they could find they liked about the blond Uzumaki.

 **That was the usual case with most of the people who complimented her. They always wanted something from her in return, like them complimenting her meant she owed them.**

"That's dumb." Ruby said.

 **But Naruto said it simply to say it with no other motive, albeit he probably didn't mean for her to hear it.**

"Ah, Pyrrha...! But hearing it when the guys don't mean for you to is the best part!" Yang complained.

 **After a few moments of awkward silence, the two teens still blushing, Pyrrha cleared her throat and pointed at Naruto's book, "What were you reading?"**

 **Thankful for having something else to talk about, Naruto picked up the book with a small nostalgic smile, "It's called The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. It's the first book that my godfather ever wrote."**

Naruto looked up, he and his parents all feeling nostalgic at that.

"Shame it was the only decent one..." Naruto said.

Kakashi glared, then caught sight of Kushina's warning expression and dropped his hostility, deciding he prefered his head attached to his body.

 **Pyhrra smiled upon seeing how much joy the book brought the blond and decided to seat herself at the edge of his bed, Naruto moving to accommodate his guest.**

 **"What's it about?"**

 **Naruto looked down at the book and slowly thumbed through the pages as he answered, "It's about a ninja who never gives up and vows that he'll break an evil curse that plagues his world."**

"Awesome!" Ruby cheered, pumping her fist in excitement. Stories like that were her favorite!

 **Not knowing just how similar the book's plot was to Naruto's own life, Pyrrha continued, "Sounds like he's a hero. What's his name?"**

Naruto, Minato, and Kushina all shared a look and laughed, making it apparent there was a joke the Remnent teens were missing out on.

 **The redhead was a little surprised when the blond began to chuckle softly before he looked her in the eye, still chuckling, "His name's Naruto."**

"WHAT?!" RWBY and JNPR all cried.

 **Finally understanding why her friend was chuckling, Pyrrha also began to laugh softly, "So your godfather named the character after you?"**

"So does that mean you're some super-awesome, world-saving, superhero ninja or something?!" Ruby cried, stars in her silver eyes as she was suddenly just about nose-to-nose with Naruto.

"Ruby...if I WAS a superhero ninja, you know I couldn't tell you. If I was and admitted it, it'd break the "Secret Identity Rule" superheros have to use." Naruto said.

"Aww man!" Ruby whined, going back over to her seat, crossing her arms and pouting as she sat back down. Stupid secret identity rule!

Naruto sighed, feeling a bead of sweat run down the back of his neck.

World-saving superhero ninja...?! Oh, that wasn't even funny considering the way the Fourth Ninja World War went down! Ruby didn't know how right she actually was with that!

 **Shaking his head Naruto answered, "No, he wrote the book long before my parents were even together. My parents actually named me after the character in the book, hoping that I would grown up to be just like the Naruto in the story."**

 **Pyrrha placed a hand on top of Naruto's, drawing his attention to her, "Well I'd say they got their wish."**

"This is true." Kushina said, Minato nodding.

 **It wasn't long till both realized that Pyrrha's hand was still touching Naruto's and almost as if being burned by a fire, they both recoiled. Blushing heavily Pyrrha stood up and nervously said, "Uh, I came to tell you the shower is free for you to use."**

Naruto and Pyrrha both went red again.

 **Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks Pyrrha."**

 **A few minutes later, a very relieved and tired Naruto stepped out of the shower to find his other teammates sleeping away. Throwing his dirty clothes into a hamper by the door he allowed himself to collapse onto his own bed, ready for Morpheus to take him into his realm.**

Pyrrha blinked at the name of the Greek god of sleep and dreams. Wondering how Naruto (or at least his story version) had known that.

 **As he began to drift off he heard the soft voice of Pyrrha, "Goodnight Naruto."**

 **Smiling he whispered back, "Night Pyrrha."**

* * *

 **The next afternoon found a battle ready team NNPR occupying one of the high tech training facilities that Beacon boasted, Naruto having reserved them a two hour time slot earlier that morning. All of them ran through basic stretches together before they separated to go through their own unique warm ups which was something Naruto was happy to see.**

 **Jiraiya had all but pounded the importance of a good warm up into his head during their little training trip together.**

"Eh...deemed it useless advice." Naruto shrugged.

"Why?" Jaune asked.

 **Of course for shinobi warm ups were a luxury. The enemy wasn't gonna let you get a couple stretches in so you could properly be warmed up.**

"That answer your question, Upchuck King?" Blake asked with a deadpan stare. The fact that warm-ups were a luxury since the enemy wasn't going to let you get a couple stretches in so you could properly be warmed up was as true in a Huntsmes or Huntress's line of work as it was in Naruto's case with shinobi. Of course taking warm-ups would be seen as useless advice.

"...I see your poi...Hey! Who you calling "Upchuck King"?!" Jaune cried at the black cat, "Oh, that'd better not stick..." the swordsman groaned.

"Juane~Arc, the Upchuck king~! The Upchuck King~! The Upchuck King~! Juaune~Arc, the Upchuck King! Spewy~ Spewy~ Chun~un~un~uncky!" Nora suddenly broke out into song.

"Too late..." Ren said.

Jaune hung his head. Damnit! Why him?!

 **Still it was interesting to see each of his teammates unique warm ups. Pyrrha's stretches and what not were more or less centered around her arms which, given her weapon, made the most sense. Of course that wasn't to say she wasn't working out her long legs either.**

Pyrrha flushed.

 **Naruto admitted that Pyrrha's height was odd to him,**

"Why?" Weiss asked.

 **seeing as how most girls he had ever known peaked at around the five foot something mark. Even the guys he knew were relatively short, Jiraiya being rather unique with his six foot stature.**

 **Once upon a time he himself had been woefully short, mostly due to his malnutrition. Thanks to his godmother Tsunade, another member of the Sannin, who was a world renown medic said to be capable of healing almost any wound, Naruto was forced to eat healthier. Thanks to his change in diet Naruto was able to put on a healthy amount of muscle and even began to grow quite tall.**

"So...does that mean Ruby'll get taller if she ate more than sugar?" Yang teased.

"Yang, stop teasing me!" Ruby whined.

 **What was odd was that he continued to grow tall. At the age of seventeen he stood at a solid six foot, five inches. Considering that his father topped out at five foot something and his mother was even shorter than that,**

Naruto gulped as his mother growled.

 **Naruto's height was something of a mystery. Both he and Tsunade had chalked it up to his massive chakra reserves and having Kurama sealed in his body.**

 **With his increase in height, Naruto was more than happy to brag about his towering height.**

"What? I didn't like being short!" Naruto defended.

 **Seeing as how even Yang was a head or so shorter than him,**

Yang snorted. The one they were reading with wasn't taller than she was. Then again, the one in the story was a different Naruto. Still a great guy as far as character went, but different Naruto.

 **Naruto was sure that he could continue to do so. Pyrrha put a stop to that. Sure she was still shorter than him, but not enough so that he had to look down to look her in the eye. Shrugging Naruto just chalked it up to it being another quality that made Pyrrha different than most girls.**

Pyrrha frowned. She didn't like being "different" than most people. Did she aknowlage it? Yes. Did she enjoy it, no.

 **Turning to observe the other two members of the team, Naruto was none too surprised to see Ren meditating. He was a little surprised to see Nora actually carefully and tediously going through her own stretches and lifts. Then again he was the poster boy for the saying "looks can be deceiving". And besides that, he knew very well that despite her deceptively foolish demeanor, the girl could pack a whallop.**

Nora beamed as her friends all nodded to that.

 **After all she was the only one who was actually able to at least dent the armor of that Death Stalker on her own. Admittedly she was only capable of doing so after numerous Aura empowered hits, but it still showed just how much power her hits held.**

 **Naruto shivered to think what kind of damage the hammer wielding girl could be capable of if she were to ever learn Tsunade's super strength technique.**

Nora suddenly looked interested in that.

 **Tsunade herself was capable of creating fissures in the earth with a simple punch and that was on her worst days.**

Everyone scooted away from Nora, suddenly pale at the idea of this Tsunade woman teaching Nora to be able to hit harder.

 **Naruto had to resist the urge to scream in terror when he imagined what Tsunade would have been capable of with Nora's hammer.**

Naruto gulped. He did NOT like that mental image at all!

 **Seeing the rest of his team ready to go for whatever he had in mind for them, Naruto stopped his own stretches before joining his teammates at the center of the training field.**

 **"Alright now that we're all warmed up, it's time to get some actual training. From what I've seen you guys already know your own strengths and already have things you guys want to improve on. As such the best thing for us to do right now is to train on working as a team," Naruto paused to turn to Nora and Ren before continuing, "I already know you two know how to work together well so, for now, me and Pyrrha will team up and see how we fare against you two. Sound good?"**

 **Ren nodded, agreeing with Naruto's assessment, while Nora...was Nora, "Yes sir! C'mon Ren time to show em the power of friendship!"**

Everyone chuckled at Nora's attitude.

 **Chuckling Naruto turned to address Pyrrha as they walked to the other half of the field, "Alright so I already know you're pretty good at both long and short range combat. You have any preferences?"**

 **"Well if I had to pick, I'd say close range, mostly because it takes me less time to prepare for, which I doubt those two will give us," Pyrrha replied.**

"Need to keep this stuff it says in this chapter about their fighting styles in mind for the Vytal Festival Turmoment..." Blake stage-whispered to her teammates.

They all nodded. Sure it was unlikely any of them could actually beat Pyrrha, but there was still no reason to give the redhead an easier time against them.

 **Nodding his head Naruto agreed. Ren was agile and quick footed, but lacked stamina. As such he and Nora were likely to go with the hit hard and hit fast tactic.**

Seeing Team RWBY pull our their scrolls and taking notes on them, team JNPR's members all paled. Not good!

Pyrrha, Ren and Nora all turned to Jaune.

"What?" Jaune asked with a blink, then his eyes widened,"Oh no...no way! You guy can't seriously...?! Them...all by myself...?!"

"You're the only one this book can't let them take notes on! It HAS to be you!" Nora said.

 **That was a very bad idea for them though.**

"And why is that?" Ren muttered.

 **Naruto was a stamina monster and could take hits that could kill most people and shrug them off like nothing, ready to keep going. He knew that Pyrrha, while not as much of a stamina monster like him, could hold her own. Add to that the fact that both he and Pyrrha were able to quickly analyze their opponents and come up with plans on the fly, they were the worst duo for Ren and Nora to go up against. He and Pyrrha could outlast them and use their fatigue as an advantage.**

"Good old Rope-A-Dope...got it, need to watch out for that..." Yang said, copying it down.

 **Of course that all sounded nice on paper. Naruto knew well enough that plans did not survive contact with an enemy, much less one as unpredictable as Nora. She was the unknown element. Naruto had fought so many agile and speedy opponents like Ren that he pretty much had a formula on how to beat them. Nora was like him though - strong, durable, a heavy hitter, and unpredictable.**

"Thank you kindly!" Nora beamed, pleased at that being pointed out about her.

 **"Well I guess we hit em as hard as we can and see if we can't tire em out. Just watch out for Nora, who know's what she'll pull out."**

 **Pyrrha nodded as she pulled her shield and sword from her back, taking on a ready stance. Naruto unravelled the scroll that held his own weapon, unsealing it in a poof of smoke.**

 **Across the field Nora and Ren had pulled out their respective weapons, looking just as ready as their teammates.**

 **Calling out across the field Naruto spoke, "Alright! So team Red Storm**

"What? It helps coordinate things on a team." Naruto said, shrugging as he defended his other self.

Ruby nodded, "I hear you, Naruto. Especally with team combo attacks."

 **versus team...uh…"**

 **"Pancake!"**

 **"..."**

 **"..."**

"Real opinionated, aren't ya, Ren?" Kushina deadpanned.

Ren didn't look away from the book, not wanting to dignify that with a response.

 **"...right. Team Red Storm versus team Pancake! Ready?...Go!"**

"Need to pay attention to this." Weiss said, looking to the screen that played what was being read.

 **In a burst of speed both Ren and Nora took off heading straight for Naruto and Pyrrha. More than prepared for this Naruto stuck his staff into the ground before reaching into the pouches on his thighs. Pulling his hands out, kunai knives were grasped in each of the open spaces between his fingers. Before he tossed the blades, Naruto made a quick mental thank you to the people responsible for Remnant's technology.**

That caught the attention of the four jonin-level shinobi present, wondering why Naruto would be greatful for that in a team sparring session.

 **Normally he would have to carefully aim for non-vital spots lest he wanted to end up killing someone. Thankfully though, each of Beacon's training grounds were outfitted with some mechanism or other that layered the people in it with a barrier of sorts that blunted most damage. Where his knives would normally pierce, they would now only bruise and sting.**

"Not bad...wish I would've had time to include something similar to that to our training grounds back home during my time as Hokage..." Minato nodded. No wonder Naruto was gratful for that. He could see how that would be good if the ones training were afraid to hurt their teammates, but still felt like holding back wouldn't help them improve their skills.

 **Pyrrha seemed to take advantage of this as well, swiftly situating her shield on her back before shifting her sword into its rifle form, taking aim, and letting loose a hail of bullets.**

 **Despite knowing about the protection the training fields offered, Nora nor Ren were too keen on getting hit by any of the projectiles headed for them. The two childhood friends shared an almost imperceptible nod before Nora took point. Heaving her hammer into the air, Nora drove the massive weapon into the ground in front of them, sending chunks of the ground flying into the air, providing team Pancake with a suitable cover from Red Storm's rain of projectiles.**

"Hmm...pretty good streangth there, Valkyrie; and not a bad way of improvising cover." Kakashi said, recalling how quite a few Iwa ninja he'd faced had done something similar.

 **Ren however put the chunks of rock to further use, using them as a platforms that allowed him to swiftly hop his into the air over the rain of kunai and bullets.**

Again, the shinobi present found that a good tactic. Nora and Ren had clearly been together a long time and throught a lot with one another to be so in synch. Considering how young the pair or teens were, it was impressive.

 **Showing off his control over his body, Ren twisted himself in mid air, his twin pistols aimed straight at Naruto and Pyrrha. Applying the necessary force, Ren pulled the triggers and let fly his own hail of bullets.**

 **Pyrrha and Naruto adjusted to the onslaught with relative ease.**

 **The red head grabbed her shield off her back, crouched low, and hid behind the round bronze item. Using the curved groove in the shield, Pyrrha situated her rifle and began to answer Ren's bullets with her own.**

 **Naruto meanwhile applied Chakra to his palm, sticking his staff to it, and, using a plentiful amount of Fuuton chakra, began to spin his shakujo at high speeds. Moving at the speeds it was, the staff was naught but a circular blur shielding Naruto from Ren's bullets.**

"Pretty good tatics so far." Weiss accessed critically.

Ruby sushed her bestie, they were still taking notes on ways Ren, Nora and Pyrrha fought so team RWBY could develop countermessures, after all.

 **Even with Ren finally coming down from his brief venture into the air, Pyrrha and Naruto were being kept pinned down by his non-stop hail of bullets, something Naruto had to question. Didn't this guy ever run out of ammo?**

Naruto didn't make sense to him. Guy had to have a limit to his projectiles. Heck, even Tenten had that problem, and she usually carried enough weaponry to level an entire hemisphere if she wanted to—and that was if she was packing light!

 **Before Naruto could pursue any theories on Ren and his endless supply of bullets, Nora finally decided to make her appearance, the recoil of her weapon propelling her straight for him. Cursing to himself, the blond was prepared to pull out a Kawarimi no Jutsu _(Body Replacement technique)_ when, to his shock, Pyrrha appeared in front of him in burst of speed, shield raised to take the hit.**

"I refuse to stand by and watch someone get hurt when I know I can do something to help them. It isn't that I don't think Naruto could handle himself, but that's just how I am." Pyrrha said.

The group all nodded, understanding that perfectly.

Kushina beamed, liking that a person like that was looking out for her child.

 **To his further surprise not only was his red headed teammate able to take the brunt of the blow, but she quickly followed it up by stomping down on the head of Nora's hammer, keeping it and it's wielder pinned there.**

"How'd she do that?" Kakashi wondered.

 **Continuing her assault, Pyrrha tossed her shield like a deadly frisbee with Ren as its intended target.**

 **Deciding to ask his teammate just how in the hell she was keeping the no doubt physically stronger Nora and her hammer at bay after the battle, Naruto instead took advantage of the opening she had presented to him and with a twirl of his staff and a spin of his own to get some momentum, Naruto spun out from behind Pyrrha and slammed his shakujo into a still struggling Nora.**

 **While strength wasn't exactly Naruto's forte, that didn't mean he was a slouch either. He was by no means anywhere near Tsunade or maybe even Nora's level of strength, but he could still pack a shallow**

"Shallow? What does that mean?" Ruby asked.

 **when he needed to. Having near an ocean's worth of chakra to empower his strikes also helped.**

 **Still Pyrrha and even Nora were a little surprised when the hammer wielding girl was not only hit with enough force to send her away from her weapon, but also send her flying through the air.**

Nora gawked. Ok...that was impressive. It took a lot to send her flying so easily.

 **Ren had managed to dodge Pyrrha's thrown shield with relative ease, although to do so he had to sacrifice his ability to provide cover fire for Nora. Still he could resume doing so and possibly aid her when he landed on the floor in a few seconds. That plan was promptly thrown out the window when, with wide eyes, he saw Naruto smack Nora like a baseball and send her flying straight towards him.**

 **Seeing as Naruto and Pyrrha had the better hand with Nora now without her weapon, Ren decided to toss his twin pistols to the side and catch his childhood friend in his arms.**

"Thanks Ren!" Nora chirpped.

Ren smiled. "Anytime."

 **Both Naruto and Pyrrha winced when Ren painfully collided with the ground with Nora in his arms. Thankfully he wouldn't suffer more than a bruise and some soreness thanks to his timely use of Aura and the fact that he had only been a few yards high by the time he had caught Nora.**

 **A few minutes later a dazed Nora and a sore Ren were seated opposite to Naruto and Pyrrha in the stands of the training field, taking a much deserved break. While the two childhood friends looked a little worse for wear, they still looked ready for another round. Pyrrha meanwhile had only worked up a slight sweat while Naruto wasn't even winded.**

"Aww man...that's it?!" Yang moaned.

"There'll be other spars, we can get more info later from those." Blake reassured her partner.

 **Still he was enjoying the slight respite and decided it was a good time to question Pyrrha about how she had managed to keep Nora at bay with just her leg, "Hey Pyrrha. I know you're strong but how in the world were you able to keep Nora and her hammer down like that?"**

 **Nora only turned to give her female teammate a curious look, just as curious as Naruto was, "Yeah! It was like Magnhild had grown like a thousand times heavier or something!" Seeing Naruto's questioning look, Nora answered, "Magnhild is the name of my hammer!"**

 **Turning to Ren with the same look, the raven haired teen answered, "My weapons are named Storm Flower."**

"You guys name your weapons?" Naruto asked.

Ruby nodded, "Yeah, we'll introduce you to them later if you like."

The casual way she'd said that made everyone look at her oddly. Finding it weird she was refering their weapons in a way that implied they were people.

"Yeah...Ruby and Tenten would get along just fine..." Naruto summed up, "Ren?"

The black-and-pink haired teen returned his attention to the book.

 **Satisfied Naruto and the rest of team NNPR turned their gazes back to Pyrrha. A little embarrassed at their intense looks the red head saw no harm in revealing her secret to her teammates, "I used my Semblance. It allows me to control anything metal so all I had to do was magnetize Nora's hammer and have it be pulled towards the ground."**

"Oh!" Naruto said, eyes widening. "Magnetic power...that's useful." Having used Jiton himself with help from Shikaku, and having himself and his teammates deal with those whom had magnetic abilities, he knew what they could do.

Kakadhi paled, recalling Pyrrha's muttering from before. He really hoped her magnetic powers didn't extend to the iron in blood! He did NOT like the idea of being eviscerated alive from the inside out like that!

"Be less of a pervert, and leave me and my friends, Naruto included, alone." The Nikos girl said, narrowing her eyes at the perverted scarecrow, guessing what he was thinking about.

Kakashi quickly nodded in agreement to her terms. Sheesh...Pyrrha WAS similar to Kushina!

 **Naruto whistled in appreciation of such a powerful Semblance. In a world where near everything used metal and where almost every opponent's weapon was also made of the metallic material, such an ability could be devastating.**

Pyrrha rubbed her arms, that thought had bothered her all the time when she'd first unlocked her Semblance, and it still did, actually. It was why she had trained herself so well to hone her control over it, why she'd developed her skills so she wasn't over-relient on her power, and why she was so careful with her Semblance. If she hurt someone...she shivvered.

 **Seeing as how, instead of relying heavily on it, Pyrrha used it only to help her when she needed it Naruto grew even more respect for his red headed teammate as a fighter.**

 **Most Shinobi, hell most warriors in general, would far too often rely on a skill or ability that made them unique. Back in the Elemental Countries the most prominent people like this were those who had a Kekkai Genkai _(Bloodline Limit)_. **

Wordlessily, Mikoto nodded. That was true. Coming from a Kekkai Genkai clan herself, she knew how that went.

 **Sure having something like the Sharingan _(Copy Wheel Eye)_ , the Kekkai Genkai of the Uchiha clan, which allowed the user to predict an opponent's movements, entrance them with a single moment of eye contact, or even copy their own moves after only seeing it once was a great tool, but take it away and most Uchiha were practically useless.**

Again, Mikoto nodded, while most Uchiha would take offense to that, she agreed with Naruto's assesment of the Uchiha being so dependent on the Sharingan. It was part of what made Itachi so infamous. Her elder son had honed his ability to where he hadn't NEEDED the dōjutsu for the most part.

 **Pyrrha on the other hand knew very well how to fight without her Semblance which made her all the more deadly when she did decide to use it.**

 **Naruto was taken from his thoughts though when Pyrrha turned the tables on him and asked her question that had been bugging her and a lot of other people as well.**

 **"By the way Naruto, how is it that you're able to pull your weapon out of plain scroll?"**

 **Sheepishly chuckling Naruto knew he was even for a long chat. Then again all he had to do was pass off it off as a sort of byproduct of his Semblance...right?**

"That's it for the chapter." Ren said, closing the book.


	5. Chapter 5

Author Note: there's an idea I'm curious if you would like to see happen and have Summer Rose added to the group reading the story as one last reader. If you would, be sure to add that to your reviews!

* * *

"I'll do this one." Minto said, taking the book.

 **(Last chapter!)**

 **"By the way Naruto, how is it that you're able to pull your weapon out of a plain scroll?"**

 **Sheepishly chuckling Naruto knew he was in for a long chat. Then again all he had to do was pass it off as a sort of by product of his "Semblance"...right?**

"Why's that there?" Jaune asked with a blink.

The others shrugged at the recap.

* * *

 **(This chapter!)**

 **"Well that has to do with my Semblance actually," Naruto replied**

"Not far from the truth, actually." Minato pointed out, pausing in his reading.

 **with his goofy grin, attempting to brush of his teammate's inquisitive states.**

 **Still not satisfied with the vague answer given, Pyrrha decided to push the issue, "I remember you mentioning your Semblance in the forest. You also said that your Semblance was what let you shoot out that fireball. What kind of Semblance do you have that it lets you do all of that?"**

Naruto groaned. This was going just lovely for his other.

 **Ren and Nora decided to stay quiet, just as curious as Pyrrha was to find out what exactly their leader's unique Semblance was. After all a Semblance that let you shoot fireballs out of your mouth and store a weapon in a simple scroll was just unheard of.**

 **Naruto's nervously rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled, "Well my Semblance is actually pretty simple, it pretty much lets me control energy in its purest form."**

"Simple yet complicated topic, you'll need to explain further." Blake pointed out.

 **The silent raven haired teen of the group was surprisingly the one to speak up, "That sounds like my Semblance. Mine lets me have almost perfect control over my Aura."**

 **The blond team captain shook his head as he leaned back and folded his arms behind his head, "No mine goes a step further than that and let's me mold my Aura in anyway I want. From there I can either use it in my body or let it out in elemental attacks or whatever else I want it to do."**

"Better." The female feline Faunus said.

 **While it seemed like Naruto was perfectly calm explaining/lying to his teammates,**

The Remnent teens all glared at Naruto, making him wince. He did NOT like lying to his friends and/or teammates! When would these half-truths end?! He wanted to be honest with his newfound friends!

 **inwardly he was sweating up a storm, 'Where the hell is Kurama when I need him the most?'**

* * *

 **While Naruto was being questioned by his curious teammates, a certain Kitsune was partaking in one of his favorite pastimes, that of course being napping.**

Naruto muttered a few choice words about a "lazy hairball" at that.

 **Naruto was a big boy and could take care of himself, and the thousands of years old chakra construct was sure that his blond Jinchuuriki could handle anything this new world could throw at him. Besides that, if a situation did arise in which Naruto needed him, Kurama could easily teleport to his container thanks to their connection.**

 **With that in mind Kurama had decided to stay in the room Naruto shared with his new teammates and snooze the day away. Just because the blond had to suffer through those boring lessons didn't mean he, the mightiest of the Bijuu, had to. Such tasks were below a being of his stature and prestige after all.**

"Still with an ego problem, I see." Kushina said, being no stranger to Kurama's high-and-mighty attitude.

 **However the universe seemed to take as much joy in torturing the fox as it did his blond container.**

"This won't end well..." Jaune winced.

 **"FOXY!"**

Everyone turned to Yang, who blushed.

 **The door to team NNPR's room was violently thrown open with enough force to crack the wall it slammed into. With an irritated scowl spreading across his furry face, Kurama saw the ones who had the audacity to interrupt his precious napping.**

 **Standing proudly in the doorway with fists on hips was the blonde bombshell Yang, obviously the one who had opened the door in such a harsh manner. Peeking out from behind the statuesque team member of RWBY was the youngest member and said team's leader, Ruby.**

"Aha! You were there too, Rubies!"

"I was most likely trying to stop you!"

 **"Yang, I don't think Naruto and his team would appreciate having their door torn off its hinges," the red themed teen said.**

"Certainly not." Ren said as Naruto and JNPR all glared at Yang.

"Aha! See!? I WAS trying to stop you!" Ruby cried, pointing at her sister.

 **Poking her head over Yang's shoulder, Blake spoke in her usual monotone, "I'd normally agree but remember this is Naruto and Nora we're talking about."**

 **The three were pushed onto the floor in a tangle of limbs as Weiss shoved her way into the doorway with her arms crossed and her signature holier than thou look on her face.**

 **"I still don't get why you two think that idiot will be able to help us."**

Kushina popped her knuckles, looking at the white-themed girl as if wondering which of her limbs to snap off first. She did NOT like the girl calling her son an idiot. Especially after he helped her with her reality check.

 **As the rest of team RWBY stood to their feet and straightened out their clothes, they all took notice of a very irritated looking fox kit glaring at them almost like it was barely restraining itself from killing them...which wasn't too far off from the truth, not that they knew that.**

"...I blame Yang! Think Kurama'll let the rest of us live if we offer her up as a sacrifice?" Weiss said.

"Hey!"

"We're not sacrificing my sister!" Ruby cried.

 **'Can't. Kill. Vixens. Can't. Kill. Vixens,' was the mantra Kurama was repeating in his head. The only one allowed to interrupt his naps without good reason was Naruto and even then the blond knew the Kitsune would eventually get him back for it.**

 **"Hey, that's Naruto's pe-," Ruby took note of the fox's growling growing even louder, daring her to call it a pet, "umm...I mean partner, Kurama."**

 **Normally Yang would have already been trying to smother the poor fox to death,**

"I would if it didn't involve being mauled right now." Yang said.

 **but the look it was currently sending towards her and the others said that probably wasn't a good idea, lest she want to test just how strong the small fox really was.**

"Smart call." Naruto and his parents all said at the same time.

 **Weiss raised an eyebrow at the fox and spoke aloud, "That's odd. Isn't he usually with Naruto?"**

 **Blake, as usual, was the voice of reason, "He probably left him here to rest or something, after all it's not like any of our classes call for Naruto needing his help."**

 **Being either the bravest, or dumbest, it was up to debate really, Ruby**

"Hey! I'm not dumb!" Ruby cried, pouting.

Weiss snickered. Up to debate, eh? Oh...that was funny!

 **approached the still less than happy looking fox. At the edge of what she assumed to be Naruto's bed, Ruby crouched and looked the fox straight in the eye, "Do you know where we can find Naruto?"**

 **Kurama raised an eyebrow and lost his angry visage as he surveyed the young female before him, 'Gotta hand it to her, she's almost as stupidly brave as the kit.**

"Is that a compliment?" Ruby asked, turning to Naruto.

Naruto nodded. "Considering what Kurama's like and how powerful he actually is, it takes a lot of guts to act like that around him."

 **Of course he confronted me when I was still several stories tall, but still her other teammates are wary of me even in this form.'**

"I still don't see how big he could actually be." Jaune said.

"So you want there to be something bad enough to warrent Kurama using his full power to happen?" Naruto asked his fellow blond.

"NO!" Jaune yelped, quickly realizing how that made his question sound. "I just...what exactly can that fox do, is all, is what I mean!"

Naruto nodded. So Arc wanted to see Kurama in action, huh...

 **With a huff Kurama turned and hopped down off of Naruto's bed before he padded his way over to where Naruto kept his notes and such. Most of them were in their native language or seal arrays and such so no one besides Naruto, himself, and possibly the cat of team RWBY could decipher them. Still Naruto was nothing if not a properly paranoid Shinobi and so most of the notes were of things that were all relatively harmless. The more dangerous seals and other items were kept either on Naruto or locked behind seals that required the blond's blood and chakra to open.**

"That IS paranoid." Weiss pointed out.

"Would _you_ leave something especally dangerous just laying around for just some random passer by to mess around with?" Kushina said pointedly.

At that, the heiress had to nod, conceading to that point.

 **The four teen girls stared in curiosity as they witnessed arguably one of the smartest animals they had ever seen rummage through piles of paper with an almost bored look. They were even more curious when the fox seemed to find what it was looking for, gently placing a particular piece of paper in its jaws before jumping back up on the bed where Ruby sat. Padding its way to the young girl in red, Kurama placed the piece of paper on Ruby's lap before resuming his spot on a pillow and attempting to finish his nap.**

 **Kurama was pleasantly surprised though when Ruby gently patted his head, "Thanks Kurama."**

 **The Kyuubi stared at what he considered to be a rather strange girl before shrugging and curling up into a ball again.**

 **'Kit always attracts the strange ones. Seems that old proverb is as true as ever, 'birds of a feather flock together'**

"So the good strange, then." Ruby nodded. She could deal with that easily.

Naruto smiled and nodded. Him and Ruby being similar...he liked that.

 **...mmmmm...bird sounds pretty good.'**

Blake silently agreed. Not as good as fish, but bird was still very tasty.

 **Ruby joined the rest of her team with paper in hand and was greeted by her grinning sister, "So what's it say little sis?"**

 **Looking at the paper Ruby spoke, "Looks like it's a receipt or something."**

 **Snatching the paper from a protesting Ruby, Weiss scanned it before shrugging, "It's a ticket from the school for a reserved time slot for one of the practice arenas the school has."**

 **"To the practice arenas!" Yang shouted as she performed a rather well executed about face and made to speed off in search of her fellow blonde.**

 **Blake casually grabbed the back of Yang's jacket collar, stopping the hyperactive girl in her steps, "Beacon has quite a few arenas spread out around the campus and we don't know which one Naruto and his team are in. I don't care to spend the better part of my day searching for it either."**

The Uzumaki Family all snickered at that. It was a common problem for shinobi. Good to see that issue hadn't changed.

 **Nonplussed by her raven haired teammate's actions, Yang just turned to Weiss and pointed a finger at the Schnee heiress, "Weiss! Hit me with the arena number!"**

 **Rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration Weiss nonetheless read through the paper before shaking her head, "Doesn't say for which arena this is."**

 **Kurama's ears twitched as he listened in on team RWBY attempting to hash out a plan to find Naruto before day's end. An idea popped into his head as he continued to listen. Soon that idea became something that had the fox grinning from ear to ear as his eyes glinted mischievously.**

"Uh-oh..." Naruto and Kushina said in unison.

 **Coming out of his attempted nap the strongest of the Bijuu casually padded to the end of the bed before making a leap and landing softly on Ruby's shoulder, surprising the other members of the team. As far as they knew Naruto was the only one the fox would allow to carry him or even liked to be around.**

 **Using his tail Kurama pointed at the piece of paper he had previously handed to Ruby, then back to himself.**

 **The gesture's meaning wasn't lost on the members of team RWBY. Of course Kurama was more than capable of human speech, even in this form. He is the fearsome and insanely powerful Kyuubi after all. But no one besides his container knew that, and as far as he and said blond Uzumaki were concerned, they were the only ones who needed to know.**

"Eh...talking animals seem weird and out of place on Remnent...no offense, Blake!" Naruto said, the last part quickly and directed to the resident Faunus.

"None taken." she said, though she wondered what Naruto's opinion on Faunus was now. Hopefully, that'd be answered soon.

 **"Are we really gonna let a fox be our GPS system?" Weiss asked incredulously. To most normal people the idea of letting a fox of all things, no matter how intelligent it seemed, lead them was a rather ridiculous idea.**

 **Of course the word normal wasn't exactly in Ruby or Yang's vocabulary and Blake didn't seem too bothered by the idea either.**

"No! No! Its a trick! Its a trap! Heed not the deceptive machinations of the fluffy evil!" Naruto cried, attempting to warn the counterparts of his new friends.

"Fluffy evil?" Yang repeated with a raised brow at her fellow blond.

Blake glared at Naruto for that. There were quite a few Faunus that would take offense to that, and quite a few people that'd describe the current White Fang members that way. It was hard for her not to feel offended.

 **Throwing her hands up in frustration Weiss conceded to letting Kurama lead them as their pseudo navigator. As team RWBY cheered they missed the mischievous smirk that spread across Kurama's snout.**

 **'No one interrupts one of my naps and gets away with it.'**

"...Fluffy evil...yeah...I can see it..." Blake gulped.

* * *

 **"So by molding your Aura in certain areas of your body or molding it in a specific way you can do pretty much anything thanks to your Semblance?" Pyrrha inquired.**

 **Shrugging** **casually** , **Naruto responded, "Yeah that about sums it up."**

The two Remnent teams nodded at that.

 **"Wait but how does that explain the whole scroll thingy? Is it like a magic trick? Like pulling a rabbit out of a hat?" Nora paused as a look of realization dawned on her face, "that's it isn't it!? You're a magician!"**

Nora turned to Naruto excitedily.

 **Even Naruto found himself sweat dropping at the oddness that had just come out of his childish teammate's mouth. He had heard and seen some weird stuff, a good chunk of which was thanks to the Snake Mistress of Konoha**

"Who?" Ruby asked.

Naruto shuddered and didn't answer.

 **, but Nora was quickly climbing his list of odd people.**

 **"Uh...no Nora...I'm not a magician…"**

"If I was, Kurama would eat all the rabbits until I was broke replacing them." Naruto said, applying what he was starting to think of as "Nora Logic", making Nora nod at that. Made sense to her.

 **The orange haired hammer wielder pouted impudently like a child who had been told she couldn't get candy or a toy from the store while they shopped.**

Ren looked at Nora, he could see that.

 **Getting over the giggles that had come due to her teammate's previous statement and the mental picture of Naruto in a top hat, Pyrrha added, "Nora is right though, how does your Semblance let you do that?"**

 **Scratching his head Naruto decided that he could trust his team with at least a half lie, "Well actually my Semblance only plays a small part in that. See back in my village we were taught from a young age how to use our Aura and then how to better control it before we were ever taught how to use our Semblance. Because of that some people were able to figure out how to use that control to use our Aura in a different way. Those ways soon branched out and became what we called Ninshu or the Shinobi Sect. What I do with scrolls is a branch of Ninshu called Fuinjutsu or Sealing Techniques.**

Weiss looked interested in this and started listening much more closely.

 **The closest thing I can compare it to is Weiss and her glyphs, but even then that is only a small part of what Fuinjutsu can do."**

 **The intrigue and** **awe the other members of team NNPR felt as Naruto divulged what could possibly be considered village secrets was clearly visible on each of their faces. Even Nora who could barely sit still for two seconds looked to be enraptured by her blond captain and his lecture.**

 **Wanting to hear even more the red head of the team voiced her curiosity, "What do you mean? What else could this fun...foo...fuin?" Taking note of Naruto's nod at her proper pronunciation of the foreign word Pyrrha continued, "What else can it do?"**

 **The blond Uzumaki let out a sigh as he leaned back and stared at the ceiling that stretched above him, "Fuinjutsu is actually unique, because unlike the other branches of Ninshu that have some sort of set of requirements, anyone can learn Fuinjutsu. It just takes patience, perfect handwriting, and imagination. Because of this Fuinjutsu is both the most accessible and most varied and powerful branch of Ninshu. A master of Fuinjutsu could do anything from simply sealing away a weapon to distorting time and space itself. The possibilities are pretty much endless."**

Weiss looked awed. Ok...she was comparing notes on this Fuinjutsu stuff with the Konoha group! This she swore!

 **Pyrrha couldn't help herself and blurted out the first thought that had popped into her mind, "Are you a master?"**

 **Naruto laughed, not only at Pyrrha's curiosity, but also at the dumbfounded looks that both Nora and even the normally stoic Ren wore.**

 **"Sadly no. I never got to fully finish my apprenticeship, but I am only about two levels away from being able to call myself a master."**

Weiss let out a disapointed tsk at that, she was eager to compair her glyphs to a master! Blast it!

 **Getting up and stretching Naruto grinned at his teammates, "So I think we've wasted enough time sitting around. One more little spar and we call it a day?"**

 **Nora was the first to her feet, having leapt up into the air and cheered, "Yay!"**

 **Ren was the opposite to his friend and calmly rose, showing all of the grace he possibly could in such a simple action. Gathering his twin pistols that Naruto now knew were called Stormflower, the calm raven haired teen nodded at his fellow male teammate.**

 **Pyrrha gathered her own weapons and strapped her shield on to her back before offering Naruto a smile and confident nod.**

 **Feeling a little more comfortable around his team after his explanation on one of his specialties, Naruto decided to show off a little bit by performing a perfect backflip over the railing of the stands, landing perfectly on his feet. Nora, the ever hyper teen she was, happily followed suit by leaping over the railing, Magnahild sitting on her shoulder and a cry of excitement escaping her lips.**

"Heh...you're a pretty fun guy, Captain Whisters!" Nora said.

Jaune gaped, looking hurt at what his teammate had just said to Naruto.

 **Seeing the smiles and laughs that Naruto and Nora were having down below, Pyrhha decided to join in on the little bit of fun by performing a single handed handstand on the railing, tilting her body in such a way that soon after she was gracefully falling to the ground below, feet first.**

 **With her ponytail fluttering in the wind and spear in hand, Pyrrha managed to look simultaneously beautiful and deadly, a thought that had Naruto blushing. As the red headed beauty landed in a crouch, both fists on the ground and her head held down, it gave Pyrrha the look of not a teen girl still training but of a full fledged warrior ready for battle.**

Kushina whistled, impressed with her junior redhead. Not at all a bad image.

Pyhrra blushed.

 **While Pyhrra rose to her feet, Ren leapt down to meet with his teammates in a much more subdued manner, merely vaulting over the railing of the stands and landing without a sound.**

 **Nodding at the raven haired teen, Naruto addressed his fellow teammates, "Well I guess the only combination left for us to try out is me and Nora against you two."**

Pyhrra and Ren both paled.

 **While Naruto smirked at being paired up with his fellow hyperactive team member, both Ren and Pyrrha looked noticeably put out by the inevitable matchup.**

 **Honestly the blond couldn't blame them. Nothing against Pyrrha and Ren as warriors, but them winning was just not all that likely. Both Nora and Naruto operated on the same principal and style of fighting - go in and fuck shit up.**

Nora cackled, clapping happily.

 **Naruto had added more to his repertoire and was much more careful with his planning and such since Kurama had been helping to train him, but he was still very much so a frontlines heavy hitter, even without the use of his signature jutsu. Nora was much the same, admittedly with a much smaller arsenal.**

 **The two had much more stamina than most and were also extremely unpredictable. Ren and Pyrrha relied too heavily on a more rigid style of fighting than Nora and Naruto, and that would be a detriment to them.**

"Need to take note of that." Ren said with a nod to himself.

 **Still Naruto knew that neither Ren or Pyrrha would simply give up. No the two were going to try and make their hyperactive teammates work for their victory.**

 **Scratching his head, Naruto raised a question that had been bugging him for awhile, "Hey Pyrrha!"**

 **The redhead in question turned to silently acknowledge her captain's call.**

 **"I know Ren and Nora's weapon names, but what's yours?"**

 **Smiling at what she knew to be her blond captain's curious face, marked by Naruto squinting his eyes and crossing his arms, Pyrrha answered, "My shield is named Akoúo and my main weapon is Miló."**

 **Nodding his head and with his curiosity satiated, Naruto made to make his way to where Nora was already getting ready for the spar. However Pyrrha decided to ask a question of her own, "What about your weapon Naruto?"**

 **Naruto stopped in his tracks and stared at his staff for a scant few seconds, seemingly lost in his own memories, before snapping out of it and twirling the shakujo casually as he answered, "Hi no Ishi."**

The Konoha residents all smiled foldly at that.

 **Knowing that names played a significant role in Naruto's home, Pyrrha was curious to know the meaning of the staff's name and voiced as much.**

 **The blond gave one last reminiscent smile at his weapon before answering, "It means 'The Will of Fire'."**

 **Still curious as to the significance of such a name and why Naruto seemed so attached to it, Pyrrha decided to wait until she could get Naruto alone, knowing how secretive the blond could be.**

 **Besides that, it looked like Nora was growing even more impatient by the second, noted by her increased fidgeting. An impatient Nora was a hilariously dangerous Nora.**

Everyone from Beacon nodded, Ren was espically vigerous at that.

 **Finally, as each pair stared the other down from opposite sides of the field, the air of battle began to permeate the air. Of course the feel of it was far different from the battles Naruto had gone through. Those battles where each side wagered not money or an imaginary point, but instead bet their very lives, pride, and convictions.**

 **This was not even comparable. Sure the other members of team NNPR had no doubt seen death already,** **living in a world where humans were forced into settlements where the fear of death by the creatures of Grimm were very much so a reality.**

Ren and Nora both tensed again at that.

 **But there was a key difference. When it came down to it, it was easy for the people of Remnant to peg the Grimm as naught, but mindless beasts of murder, which wasn't too far from the truth. As such killing them was simply a task, like hunting for food.**

 **Naruto however was different. He had seen and lived through war. He knew the difference in battle when your enemy was not some beast or some other quarry, but a human, a human with emotions, feelings, dreams, and aspirations just like you.**

"Ok...I call bull to that!" Jaune cried.

The next instant, Naruto was holding him up by his shirt, glaring at him.

"Believe me, Arc...I WISH that was the truth!" The blond Uzumaki snarled. Then he shoved Jaune back down and stomped over and sat back down in his previous spot.

"Long, bad story...not here, ok?" Kakashi winced, seeing the Beacon students' stares.

They all nodded. Not the time or place to ask.

 **This spar was not even close to that feeling of knowing that with the slightest misstep your very existence would cease to be.**

 **And for that Naruto smiled. As he felt his chakra begin to course through his body in that familiar warmth, as he heard Nora yell in excitement, Naruto smiled.**

 **'Maybe coming here wasn't a bad thing after all.'**

 **Sharing a look with Nora, Naruto's smile went from being just that, a simple smile, and instead became the cocky grin he was known for back in his youth.**

 **"Let's do this -ttebayo!"**

* * *

 **All of team NNPR sighed in relief as they turned down the hallway that housed their room, all members - even the stamina monster Naruto - were tired and bruised all over and could not wait to embrace the soft comfort of their beds.**

 **Of course their relief became raised eyebrows as they entered the room and saw that the wall behind the door bore slight cracks in the dry wall as if someone had slammed the door open in a fit of fury.**

Yang smiled and chuckled with a sheepish expression "Uh...sorry...?" she said.

"...Kurama had better make you pay through the nose with what he's making you go through, Yang..." Naruto deadpanned.

 **Shrugging off the oddity of the cracked wall, the four teens decided that their fatigue and need for a shower far outweighed any curiosity they held about said mystery.**

 **Despite it being just a few minutes into sundown, the team had managed to cram as much as they could into the the two hour slot that Naruto had reserved for them. Thanks to the intense pace Naruto had set for them, the team was able to get a better handle on how to not only work as a group of four, but also pairs.**

 **The pairing of Nora and Nauto, aptly nicknamed Disaster,**

Everyone looked at Naruto, then Nora, and shuddered. They could EASILY see why that name would fit a little TOO perfectly!

 **was obviously the frontlines duo responsible for either taking out numerous enemies or providing a distraction for the backup pair of Pyrrha and Ren which was named Rose.**

 **What surprised the rest of team NNPR was how devastating of a combo Ren and Naruto made. The two male teens could work perfectly as a stealth unit, what with Naruto's shinobi training and Ren's own grace and agility, or a quick strike unit capable of unleashing untold amounts of destruction before disappearing. Thanks to this the duo were nicknamed Bolt Flower.**

Ren looked interested at that.

 **The two females of NNPR were the backup to Bolt Flower and worked as a solid al** **l around unit by themselves, capable of either fighting on the frontlines or providing covering fire. That in mind, the two girls had decided to name their formation simply, Queen.**

Pyrrha and Nora shared a smile at that.

 **Of course all of the battle strategy that they had spent the past two hours going over was the furthest thing from any of the teen's mind instead being replaced by thoughts of food, showers, and sleep.**

 **As an unspoken agreement, Naruto, Ren, and Nora collapsed onto their beds while Pyrrha took the first shower.**

 **As the sounds of the shower being turned on became the only background noise in the room, Nora having already decided to take a nap and Ren quietly being...Ren, Naruto rolled over and sat up, scratching his head as he realized that a certain Kitsune was oddly absent.**

 **The blond Uzumaki wasn't particularly worried about Kurama himself, being more concerned for anybody with the unfortunate luck of being stuck with the troublesome Bijuu (Tailed Beast). After having spent the literal entirety of his seventeen years of life with the fox, Naruto knew that wherever the Kitsune was, trouble was not too far off, if the sentient chakra construct was already causing it.**

"Oh, _NOW_ he tells us!" Weiss cried, throwing her hands into the air.

"He did try to, what with that "fluffy evil" comment." Blake pointed out, though she was still worried for the welbeing of her and her friends' other selves.

 **Shrugging it off Naruto decided that food would be a good idea to have when his team was showered and ready to either finish whatever homework they had or sleep like he planned.**

 **That in mind the blond rolled off his bed and decided to venture off to the cafeteria to see what was available. Hopefully Remnant's advanced technology extended into the food area as well and he could just simply grab his teammate's favorite foods without any fuss. Having ramen would just be a huge plus really.**

 **Much to the blond's relief the cafeteria was just as technologically advanced as every other area of Beacon which meant not only could he get his teammate's favorite food, but he could also indulge himself in the sweet sweet food of the gods, ramen.**

"Food of the gods, huh?" Ruby said.

"Long story, tell you later." Naruto promised the scythe-user.

Ruby smiled at that.

 **But now came the had part,**

"Missing a 'r' for it to be the right word if it's suppossed to be "hard"." Blake frowned. She didn't mean to act like a grammer nazi, but as a lover of literature, it was hard for her to keep from such comments.

 **carrying all the food. Normally the solution to such a situation would be easily solved by the quick use of a jutsu that he had abused as a preteen.**

"Gotta love Kage Bushin." Naruto smiled, the other four shinobi nodding in agreement with him.

 **However seeing two of the same people walking the halls would be weird and would raise questions Naruto didn't want to answer.**

 **If Naruto were in the right state of mind he would realize that he had plenty of other jutsu to help to keep his identity as a shinobi hidden. However said blond was far from the right state of mind. Tired, hungry, and with the worry that his precious ramen was getting colder with each passing second, Naruto's higher thinking faculties were otherwise preoccupied.**

 **None of the other students who occupied the cafeteria thought to mention to the blond staring heatedly at the plates of food in front of him that there was an even simpler solution to his conundrum in the form of the food carts that sat not feet away. Really though it wasn't their fault as said students really had no clue as to what Naruto's problem even was in the first place and instead just passed him off as another one of the many oddballs who called Beacon home.**

"WE'RE NOT ODDBALLS!" RWBY and JNPR shouted, offended.

 **The importance of this was to not only illustrate the level of Naruto's fatigue and love of ramen, but to also allow for the perfect timing of a certain Kitsune to come bursting through the doors of the cafeteria with a less than happy looking team RWBY hot on his tail.**

"Our torment was bad enough to leave a noodle incident..." Blake twitched.

 **Each of the girls had leaves and twigs littering their hair with small tears and cuts on their clothing. All in all it looked like they had gotten into a fight with a tree and lost.**

"...Is it wrong part of me wants to know, but the other doesn't?" Ruby asked.

"I blame Yang!" Weiss declaired.

At that, the red, white, and black-themed members of the all-girl team rounded and glared at the yellow brawler, who looked sheepish.

 **Even still it wasn't the commotion that was caused by Kurama and team RWBY's less than quiet entrance that snapped Naruto out of his almost meditative state of mind, but the feeling of a familiar weight settling around his shoulders.**

 **Coming back to the waking world, Naruto turned his head and saw Kurama had taken his usual perch on the blond's shoulders and was grinning like he had just finished eating the tastiest rabbit ever.**

 **Naruto's attention was finally drawn to the four disheveled and angry females standing behind him. Even in his current state of mind, it was ridiculously easy for the Uzumaki to connect the dots, leading to him giving Kurama a deadpan stare.**

 **"Do I need to put you back in the cage?"**

"What good would that do?" Yang asked.

 **Team RWBY wondered what a simple cage would do to a less than normal fox, but if the fearful look that crossed the Kitsune's face was anything to by then said punishment was probably the worst thing that the troublesome fox could experience. Of course while the girls thought Naruto meant a normal cage, Kurama knew full well that his container was talking about putting his furry ass back inside the seal that had kept him behind bars for sixteen years.**

Weiss looked interested again.

 **Not only was the space behind said bars small, but Naruto's mindscape hadn't changed in the slightest and was still the dimly lit, damp sewer it had always been.**

Everyone turned to look at Naruto. That...didn't sound too good.

"That's honestly revolting." the Schee said, scrunching her nose up.

"Blame him and his decision-making skills!" Naruto informed, pointing at his dad, who sqwaked.

"Excuse me?!"

"Well, what did you THINK my life was going to leave me with, a feild of dasies?! If a person's mindscape reflects their mental state, and their mental state is likewise reflects their life experences, what did you think my life would be like after what you did when I was a newborn, dad?!" Naruto snapped.

Kushina growled, cracking her knuckled and glaring at her husband, who gulped, paled and whimpered at her expression. Whenever his wife's hair started to rise up like nine fox tails the way it was now, he knew he was in deep shit!

"Not my failt!" he yelped. It wasn't like he wanted things to go so wrong that night!

 **Admittedly it was far better than the seal his previous container, Naruto's own mother, had used, Kurama had very much so grown used to having a vast majority of his freedom back. The past year was the first in near a hundred years that the fox was able to freely roam and stretch.**

 **He had been stuck inside his first Jinchuuriki, Mito Uzumaki, for close to a hundred years where said Uzumaki had kept him immobile with the use of seals. That wasn't so bad, but she didn't even let him scratch any itches that popped up and that shit is not fun.**

 **Then there was Naruto's mother, Kushina, who had kept him chained to a massive fucking slab of rock with her chakra chains. Not only was he still unable to scratch any itches, she had the nerve to crucify him, pinning his limbs and tails down to the slab and there he had stayed for almost twenty years.**

"Hey, I wasn't who designed that seal!" Kushina defended.

 **While severely pissed when he found himself sealed into yet another Uzumaki, Kurama was grateful that at least Naruto's seal let him scratch any itches he had and didn't involve having sharp pointing things stabbed into his body.**

 **But Kurama was nothing if not vain and as such he took pride in his lustrous fur. The moisture in the sewer that was Naruto's mind was hell on his fur and it had taken months to remedy the damage done to it.**

 **There was no way in hell Kurama was voluntarily going back in that cramped hellhole.**

 **Naruto knew all of this and enjoyed using the threat of the seal on the normally high and mighty Kitsune.**

 **However team RWBY had gone through things they didn't want to discuss in pursuit of the fox and so were not satisfied with just scaring Kurama.**

"Bet not." Ren said.

 **Stalking over to her fellow blond, Yang invaded Naruto's personal space bubble and vehemently spoke, "Foxy, if you know what's good for you you'll hand over that evil ball of fur. Right. Now."**

 **Naruto looked between the angry visage of Yang and Kurama trying to be as cute as was possible and weighed his options. On one hand Kurama was an important part of his life and had grown to become something of a close friend within the past year or so. On the other hand Yang was a girl he had known for only a few days. However if there was one thing Naruto had learned in his seventeen years of life it was this; when a girl is angry and you have a way to make her happy or appease that anger, you better damn well do it if you want to live.**

"Smart man..." everyone nodded; the females in satisfaction, the males in aggrement with Naruto's survival instincts.

 **Shrugging Naruto spoke, "Sorry buddy, Yang scares me more than you do."**

 **Grabbing Kurama by the scruff of his neck, Naruto tossed the crying fox to a maliciously grinning Ruby and Weiss. Yang's once angry face became her usual cheeky grin and she addressed Naruto, "Aww, you know just what to say to a girl."**

 **The buxom blonde offered Naruto a flirtatious wink before walking off to join the rest of her team in exacting revenge.**

 **Naruto offered a quick prayer to Kami, asking that Kurama retain his sanity and the will power to survive the wrath of four angry teen females.**

Naruto, Ren, Minato, and Jaune all leaned back and salluted, humming a fruneral march for the fox's sake. Poor Kurama.

 **The blond male was surprised when he turned around to see Pyrrha standing just behind him with a curious look on her face. No doubt she had just seen the last of the exchange between Naruto and team RWBY and was wondering what had happened to lead up to the odd scene she had walked in on.**

"I would..." Pyrrha said.

 **Naruto just shook his head and patted the red head on her shoulder, "It's best if you don't know."**

 **That only raised more questions in Pyrrha's mind, but looking at the way the normally stoic Blake was grinning like the cat who had caught the canary as she and the others left, the deadly beauty of team NNPR agreed that maybe it was best she didn't know.**

Pyrrha nodded, she also agreed with her other self about that.

 **Switching topics, Naruto decided to ask the question of why Pyrrha was in the cafeteria as well.**

 **The red head smiled and replied, "Well Ren said you had come to get us some food, but that was a half hour ago so I figured you might need some help carrying up all the food."**

 **Naruto chuckled nervously only now realizing how long he had been standing there "concentrating".**

 **"Whoops?"**

 **Pyrhha giggled at her friend and captain before gesturing at the carts that sat in the corner, "It's fine, but let's grab a cart and head up to the room. I don't think Nora can go any longer without her pancakes."**

 **Knowing that denying Nora her pancakes was like denying him his ramen,**

"Ahh...so _that's_ how it is, eh?" Nora said with a thoughtful nod. She understood Naruto's oppinion of ramen perfectly now.

 **Naruto agreed and grabbed a cart before helping Pyrrha to pile the food on top of it.**

 **As the two teens made their way back to their room, Pyrrha decided to sate her curiosity over Naruto and his weapon.**

 **"Hey Naruto?"**

 **Hearing his name, the blond turned and acknowledged Pyrrha with a nod, wondering what she was going to ask him now. Part of him already knew she was going to ask him some question that had to due**

"Sorry for being nit picky, but why does it have D-U-E when it should be D-O." Blake asked.

 **with his past or something with how frequently they had those kind of conversations.**

 **It wasn't a bad thing really and they often talked about other random things on the way to class or during their down time, but anytime Pyrrha saw him fight or he vaguely mentioned something about his home, the red head would eventually come to him with questions.**

 **Not that he minded at all. It felt good to talk about Konoha and his friends with someone who was genuinely interested in him and what he had to say.**

 **"Well I know you said that names meant a lot back in your home village so I was wondering why you named your weapon The Will of Fire."**

The five Konoha ninja all sighed with nostalga at that.

 **Naruto smiled as he almost immediately lost himself in memories at hearing the phrase that had shaped and given birth to his childhood dream, a dream he had before he even truly understood what it meant.**

 **"In my home village we had this...philosophy that each of our warriors fought and died for, the belief that their sacrifices were not in vain. Our leader, the Hokage, was supposed to be the epitome of this, they were to see the entire village as one big family - their family. Growing up an oprhan**

The Uzumaki family and Mikoto all cringed.

"...I HATE that "O"-word...!" Natuto shuddered.

 **, well the one thing I always wanted was a family and what better family could you have than your entire home village?"**

Ruby sniffed. That...that was beautiful!

 **Pyrrha couldn't help, but to grow even more respect for Naruto. He had aspired to become the leader of his home, not out of an attempt for more power or authority, but because he wanted to have a family, he wanted to have a reason to fight.**

Pyrrha nodded along with her other self. That was deeply respectable. She admired it.

 **Of course it was hard to miss the almost factual manner in which Naruto admitted to his having grown up an oprhan.**

"Could you please stop using _THAT WORD_ already?!" Naruto said.

 **It seemed that because of this Will of Fire, Naruto understood what it meant to be a great and compassionate leader.**

 **She was surprised though when Naruto continued further, delving deeper into his past.**

 **"But my godfather taught me a different part to the Will of Fire. He believed that not only could it make Konoha a safe and amazing place for all people, but that by spreading the Will of Fire, through loving each other, peace would be possible."**

The group from Remnent all gasped in sheer awe at that. THAT was Naruto's goal?!

In a flurry of rose petals, Naruto suddenly found himself being glomped by a very emotional, deeply touched Ruby as she wept in sheer adoration for what the ideals that made up the Will of Fire meant.

 **It was this statement that made Pyrrha pause in her steps, shocked at not just what her blond friend said, but also the conviction with which he said it. Turning to look at Naruto, Pyrhha was awed by not only the sheer belief Naruto put into those words, but also at her own thoughts that maybe this young man - who was brash, unpredictable, and most often a goofball - could pull it off.**

"I appreciate the faith, Pyrrha." Naruto smiled at her.

 **Peace was something that almost all Hunters and Huntresses strode for, in some small capacity, whether that peace be peace with one's self or with those around you. Pyrhha was no different. However it was clear that Naruto wasn't aiming for something like that. No he was aiming for something on a much larger scale.**

 **And some small part of her actually believed Naruto was fully capable of achieving that.**

 **Coming back to her senses, Pyrrha realized that they had managed to make it back to their room without anything odd occuring.**

"Really? Huh...that's weird considering our group..." Jaune said.

"Well, Kurama _is_ taking a bullet...maybe that has something to do with it?" Kakashi drawled.

 **She giggled though when she saw how childishly excited Naruto looked as he hurriedly opened the door and plopped himself down with his several bowls of ramen. It was amazing how quickly the blond could go from speaking with the charisma and passion of a leader who fully believed in their cause to being the goofball he usually was.**

 **Grabbing her own plate of food, Pyrrha joined the rest of her team as they chatted, a smile on her face as she allowed her mind to have one last thought on the topic, 'And I wouldn't want it any other way.'**

"That's it for this chapter. Anyone up for a break?" Minato asked, closing the book.

Everyone nodded as they stood and stretched.


	6. Chapter 6

"Actually...I think one more chapter couldn't hurt." Kushina said, causing Minato and Kakashi to stiffen, both men paling.

"In that case, I'll do this one." Ruby said.

Smiling, Naruto passed the book to her, "Ok then. Take it away, Ruby!"

 **When Naruto had first come to Remnant he had no idea that there would be an almost entirely different form of human life that coexisted alongside the "normal" humans.**

"Huh...the world 'normal' is in qoute marks." Ruby pointed out as she paused in her reading.

Blake sat a bit straighter, eyes going wide. She was suddenly very much more interested in this chapter than usual.

 **Said race of humans were called Faunus. For the most part these Faunus looked and functioned like any other** **human, except the fact that they bore animalistic features. These features ranged from being a simple pair of cat ears to having the claws, eyes, and tail of a dog.**

Ruby deeply frowned at that, "Ok...no need to make them sound so strange, Faunus are normal people, too!"

The resident catgirl whipped her head to look at her team leader, feeling her eyes start to sting with tears of gratitude at that.

That feeling was incressed as everyone else either nodded or verbally agreed with the scythe-user.

Blake sniffed loudly, starting to just get overcome...she loved these people! She meant it!

 **However the differences between human and Faunus were not merely cosmetic. Faunus exhibited traits similar to the animal they looked like. Those with canine features had a sharper sense of smell and hearing while those of the feline family had enhanced eye sight and agility.**

"Ok...why the heck is that abnormal?!" Naruto demanded. He knew plenty of people with enhanced senses and quick bodies.

 **Coming from the Elemental Countries where there were families of people who could use their own bones as weapons**

"Wait...say what?! No way! That's so cool!" Ruby cheered, pausing in her reading with stars in her eyes.

 **, expand any portion of their body at will, or had a colony of bugs literally living inside of them**

"Wait...what?!" Weiss cried, then scrunched up her face, "That's DISGUSTING!"

"Hey!" Naruto snapped, "One of those bug guys is a friend of mine!"

 **\- well needless to say Naruto wasn't impressed.**

 **Naruto himself bore some animalistic features due to being in the womb of his mother while she housed the soul of Kurama and then having said Bijuu _(Tailed Beast)_ trapped inside his own body. Of course his features were hardly noticeable with the whisker marks that marred his cheeks being the only immediately visible difference.**

Naruto nodded at that.

 **It was when Naruto channeled Kurama's chakra that the features became more noticeable. With the influence of the Kitsune's unique energy flowing through him Naruto's normally blue eyes would become a bloody crimson with his pupils becoming slits like that of a fox's. His nails would sharpen and grow in length, becoming knife like claws. To top it all off the whisker marks on his cheeks would thicken and become even more noticeable.**

"...Really?" Blake asked, interested, looking at Naruto.

He shrugged, "The uncontrolled state, yeah. No demos, though. Dangerous stuff."

Blake nodded.

 **Being the container for a Bijuu marked Naruto as a Jinchuuriki _(Power of the Human Sacrifice)_ and to some this meant he wasn't exactly human himself. Years ago he had struggled with this concept, refusing to believe that he was different from the "normal" people.**

Naruto shifted in his seat. That brought up memories, none of them good.

 **Of course in the shinobi world where walking on water and giving the laws of nature and psychics the finger was a daily occurrence, "normal" was a loose term.**

"Hold up!" Yang said, looking stunned, "Stuff like _THAT_ is seen as _normal_ where you guys are from, but they still saw Foxy as "different" and hated him for it?! What the Hell kind of messed-up logic is that?!" she demanded, eyes shifting red.

 **Still the civilians of Konoha who had seen the fearsome and destructive power that was an angered Bijuu feared and hated Naruto, not being able to look past his title of Jinchuuriki to see the lonely orphan who only sought the love and warmth of family and friends.**

"Oh..." Yang winced, that answered her question.

Ruby set the book down and in the time it took to blink, she had zipped over and wrapped her arms around Naruto, hugging him.

"Looked like you needed it." She said, letting go of him.

Kushina's eyes watered at the young Rose's sweetness and compassion for her precious baby boy. She had to restrain herself from snatching her up in a hug of her own. Far as Kushina was concerned, Ruby was good for Naruto. Enough said!

Naruto smiled softly at that, taking a deep breath and hugged her back "...Thanks, Ruby...mean it..."

Smiling at helping a new friend, Ruby went back to her seat, picked up the book and started reading again.

 **Many lesser people would have crumbled under the weight of such emotions, but Naruto had only turned around and sought to make the world a better place, a place where no other person would have to go through the prejudice and hate that he had as a child.**

Blake blinked, then shot a smile at Naruto. "Bravo, my good sir, world needs people like that."

Naruto bashfully rubbed the back of his head at that.

 **As such it was no surprise that Naruto deeply sympathized with the Faunus of Remnant. They were like him. Treated harshly because of something they had no control over.**

Blake abruptly stood and moved over to sit next to Naruto, Kushina smiling as she made room for the girl. It didn't surprise her, or anyone else in the room, that she had done that.

 **Normally Naruto was a fun loving person and very easy to get along with. There were few things that could truly anger him. The sight in front of him was one of those things.**

 **A fellow first year student, a guy named Cardin from what he gathered from the whispers in the cafeteria, was publicly bullying and humiliating an older student. Simply because she was a Faunus.**

"HE WHAT?!" Naruto cried, bolting to his feet furiously.

 **Nothing angered the blond more than seeing someone pick on another simply because they looked different.**

 **What only angered him more was seeing that nobody, not even a professor, was going to stop it.**

Naruto started breathing heavy, bursts of crimson chakra coming off him as he did.

 **He wasn't the only one though. The normally calm Pyrrha was tightly clutching her food tray while Nora was frowning and seemed to be debating on grabbing her hammer. Even the stoic Ren looked visibly angered by the scene.**

 **Team RWBY was no better. Yang was clenching her fists tight enough that her knuckles were turning white and Ruby was glaring heatedly at Cardin. Weiss looked indifferent for the most part, but if one looked closely they could see her own abject disgust with the male. Blake was the most visibly angered. Her amber eyes had become slit and you could hear her almost hissing while her hair bow twitched in agitation.**

At that, Naruto took several deep breaths to relax, sat back down, and smiled at the Remnent teens.

"Just wish we did more..." Jaune said, fighting down a wince.

Both Teams shifted. Looking back at that, they realized they were all as bad as Sir Asshole. They all had done nothing to help defend Velvet, they had simply felt bad for her instead of actually helping her. So what made them any better?

It left them all feeling guilty.

 **As Cardin shoved the teen Faunus causing her to fall and spill her lunch, Naruto stood up, shocking those around him from their own thoughts. Before anyone from his team could stop him, the blond was gone in a blur of speed.**

 **The next second he appeared and the series of events that followed shocked everyone watching. There Naruto was, suspended in mid air, his fist inches away from Cardin's face, while Cardin himself was being held with his hands behind his back.**

"What the-?!" Everyone yelped. hat happened?!

 **The sharp sound of heels hitting the floor echoed throughout the cafeteria as Glynda Goodwitch stalked through the now silent building.**

 **It was now clear to everyone what had happened. The female professor and Huntress had intervened at the perfect time and stopped the blond teen from giving Cardin what both teams NNPR and RWBY thought he deserved.**

 **Naruto himself was angered deeply by the appearance of his fellow blond.**

 ** _'Tch, of course she_ happens _to intervene right when this teme was gonna get what he deserves.'_**

"Teme?" Nora asked.

"Means either...ah..." Naruto nervously shot his parents a look.

"Slur. Means either 'bitch' or 'bastard' depending on who you say it about." Minato supplied, feeling it was better he do it than let his son get on his mother's and Mikoto's bad sides.

Jaune blinked. "...Ohhhh-Kayyyy...am I the only one that feels that sounds about right about Cardain?" he asked.

"No. It suits him." Blake said flatly.

 **"I hope you know that we do not condone fighting amongst students outside of the arena, Mr. Uzumaki," the buxom professor lectured as she stared straight into the angry eyes of the still suspended Naruto.**

 **Still pissed at not only her choice of timing and words, but at Cardin as well,**

"Yeah...I'd be pissed about all that." Naruto scowled. He REALLY wasn't liking that Goodwitch woman so far.

 **Naruto lashed out, "But you do condone bullying I take it? Cuz I didn't see you or any other professor here stop this jerk from attacking that girl who did nothing wrong."**

 **Glynda almost visibly flinched at the retort, knowing that if she said the wrong thing, not only would her credibility take a hit, but so would Beacon's.**

"Burn the witch!" Yang cheered.

 **Adjusting her glasses Glynda continued in the same voice, "The situation would have been handled properly, and as such there was no need for you to intervene."**

"If the situation would have been handled properly, it wouldn't have taken Naruto getting involved in the first place for the staff to put a stop to it." Kakashi said with a frown.

 **Naruto narrowed his eyes at the blonde woman before he scoffed and, shocking everyone - Glynda included -, flared his chakra quickly, breaking him of whatever the female professor had done to stop him.**

 **Without even glancing back Naruto stormed out of the cafeteria, clearly less than happy about how the situation was "handled".**

 **Shaking herself from her thoughts of the enigmatic blond, Glynda turned to Cardin and released him from her hold, "Mr. Winchester, you will be coming with me to see Mr. Ozpin to address your actions here and your subsequent punishment."**

 **Outraged for being punished Cardin retorted with a yell, "Why!? I didn't do anything wrong!**

"Bullshit you didn't, Sir Asshole!" Naruto snapped, only to freeze as a feeling of dread crashed down on him. He turned to see his mother frowning at him with disapproval.

"Naruto, language!" Kushina snapped

Blake jumped to her feet and stood between the woman and Naruto, glaring defiantly. "Don't you dare! He has every right to be upset with all of that!"

"While I fully understand, that doesn't mean he's off the hook." the mother said.

Naruto gulped.

 **Besides what about that...idiot blond!? He should be in trouble too!"**

 **Glynda was far from happy to have another student yell at her for the second time in a day and glared heatedly at the teen, scaring the piss out of him and a few others in the vicinity, "Do not question me Mr. Winchester. The situation with Mr. Uzumaki will be dealt with appropriately and you needn't concern yourself with it. Do I make myself clear?"**

 **Clearly cowed by the angry visage of the imposing professor, Cardin only nodded his head.**

"That's the whole thing with bullies, their really just cowards." Kakashi said.

Ruby, Weiss, Pyrrha and Jaune all shared a look and snicked at that. Recalling the Ursa in Forever Fall Forest. Cardin talked a big game, but played a terrible one when push came to shove.

 **As Cardin was led out of the cafeteria by the strict professor, the cafeteria exploded into gossip, the wheels of the rumor mill already turning.**

 **Team NNPR and RWBY were worried for their friend, never having seen the blond teen display such anger, though none more so than Ruby and Pyrrha.**

The two mentioned girls nodded.

 **Naruto was kind enough to be Ruby's first friend at Beacon and had helped her on several occasions, most recently with the whole drama between her and Weiss. The heiress had confessed that it was the goofy blond who had really driven her to apologize to the younger girl, not only helping Ruby and Weiss, but team RWBY as a whole.**

"And on behalf of our other selves, I thank you." Ruby smiled at the blond Uzumaki.

Naruto waved her off with a smile, "Any time."

 **Pyrrha and Naruto had become close in the weeks since team NNPR had formed, something that was clear to anyone who saw the two together, which was quite often. The two were often seen sparring or training together, eating together, and generally looking like a couple, something the gossips of Beacon had taken great pleasure in talking about.**

Both Naruto and Pyrrha groaned while Jaune frowned.

 **Clearly worried for their friend, the two teams rose and made to look for Naruto, but were stopped the voice of Blake.**

 **"I don't think that's a good idea."**

 **Curious about what the brunette**

"Brunette? My hair's black." Blake said.

 **meant, Ruby turned and questioned the still seated member of team RWBY, "What do you mean Blake? You saw how angry Naruto looked!"**

 **Arms crossed, Weiss decided to add in her own two cents, "I agree. We shouldn't just let Naruto leave like that."**

 **The silence that ensued following Weiss' statement was near palpable.**

 **Noticing that the group of people had gone completely silent and were all staring at her while Ruby poked her like she was some sort of freak, Weiss swatted Ruby away from her and called out, "What? Why are you all staring at me like that!?"**

 **"Sorry, but we've never heard you call Naruto by his actual name," Ruby sheepishly responded.**

 **The Schnee heiress' brow began to twitch in anger, "I'm not that mean am I!?"**

"You're not mean, just very formal." Mikoto said.

Weiss hummed thoughtfully, then nodded. She could deal with and accept that.

 **Not wanting to anger the glyph user any more, the others instead opted to turn their attention back to Blake, also choosing to ignore Weiss' indignant cry as no one answered her question.**

 **"What I mean is that, seeing how angry he is, Naruto probably wouldn't like having so many people crowd and interrogate him," Blake continued.**

"Seen stuff like that before?" Kakashi asked

"Too often." Blake replied.

 **The others remained silent, none having any sort of rebuttal to the distant member of team RWBY. None of them had ever seen Naruto anywhere close to angry and had no idea how he would react to their presence. Weiss was the only one who had seen the blond team leader of NNPR in a mood other than goofy or serious, and that had been a more disappointed Naruto than an angry one.**

Weiss blinked, then nodded.

 **Finally it was Pyrrha who broke the silence by rising from her seat and beginning to make her way to find Naruto, see** **ming to ignore Blake's words.**

 **Surprisingly it was Ren who stopped the redhead from continuing her walk, putting his arm out in front of Pyrrha.**

 **"I think we should listen to Blake and leave Naruto be, for now at least."**

 **Pyrrha actually seemed lightly annoyed and it showed in her tone of voice, "I'm sorry but Blake doesn't know Naruto like I do and I think he needs his friends right now."**

"And I appreciate you wanting to be there to help me." Naruto said, to which Pyrrha smiled.

 **Lightly shoving her raven haired teammate's arm away from her, Pyrrha made to continue on her way to find her blond friend, but was again interrupted, this time by the ravenette of team RWBY,**

"Much better." Blake nodded, refering to when the book incorrectly called her a brunette.

 **standing in her way.**

 **"You're right, I don't know Naruto like you do, but I do know that look in his eyes. That wasn't the look of someone who wanted to talk or listen, that was the look of someone who needed to vent their frustrations in a physical manner."**

"Also true..." Naruto winced.

 **For a moment neither side said anything, both young women staring into the eyes of the other, waiting to see who would concede first. Amber bore into emerald green with a silent and calm intensity, attempting to show its own unwillingness to back down in the contest of wills.**

 **Many would have assumed that Pyrrha's concern for her friend would aid her and fuel her desire to prove Blake wrong, but it was in fact that same concern that caused her to not moments later, sigh and back down from the silent battle.**

"Blake: 1, Pyrrha: 0." Yang commented.

 **As much as she proclaimed to know Naruto better than Blake, the red head of team NNPR knew that it wasn't all that true. Sure she knew more of Naruto's past and ambitions than anyone else, as far as she knew, but at the end of the day she was just as clueless as to how Naruto functioned. She knew Naruto as the strong willed and goofy, yet deceivingly strong, warrior. As sad as it was for her to admit, Pyrrha knew only a fraction of Naruto Uzumaki, the person, something that made her all the more saddened.**

 **She of all people knew what it was like when others judged you at face value, never bothering to get to know the person hidden behind the walls and baggage that came with life.**

Pyrrha cringed while she hugged herself and rubbed her arms, shuddering at that.

 **This was something she resolved to fix.**

* * *

 **When the sun set and the moon rose to take its perch in the sky, Beacon Academy truly came to life. Being so far from the main city of Vale and its lights, the stars were able to show their brilliant lights. Alongside the light of the moon, the stars bathed the buildings and grounds of Beacon in a dim white light, bringing an almost ethereal feel to the atmosphere of the academy.**

"Really is rather beautiful." Weiss nodded with a faint smile.

 **Many students and teachers would often venture out to any one of the higher structures of the academy and spend minutes or even hours simply enjoying the peace and tranquility that came with the blanket of Night. With the cool breeze blowing s** **oftly, many others chose to go for a jog or simply meditate, taking advantage of the crisp and clean air.**

 **One particular blond Uzumaki found himself also partaking in Beacon's night life, laying on his back staring up at the twinkling stars, perched atop the second tallest structure situated not too far from the main lighthouse that was Beacon's namesake.**

Naruto shrugged; he enjoyed star-gazing as much as Shikamaru liked watching the clouds, and he enjoyed being up high when he needed to think about things.

 **The silence that enveloped the teen and the snoozing fox on his chest was broken when Naruto spoke aloud, "Come to enjoy the view too?"**

 **While most would think him odd for seemingly talking to himself, the figure that emerged from the shadows of the nearby stairwell entrance broke that notion. Garbed in her usual dark clothing, Blake showed no signs of being surprised that Naruto had known she was there. Still she was curious though.**

 **"I'm surprised you knew I was there."**

Blake nodded.

 **Still not tearing his gaze from the star filled sky, Naruto grinned and replied, "And I'm surprised at how quiet you could be with those heels on."**

"It is a skill that must be honed." Kushina laughed.

 **Blake huffed at the jab at her clothing choice causing Naruto to chuckle.**

 **Shaking his head the blond rose to his feet, dusted his clothes off and moved Kurama to his usual spot around his neck.**

"And he was still alseep?"

Naruto shrugged.

 **"So what brings you out here at this time of night?" Naruto asked, donning his usual carefree grin.**

 **Blake sauntered over to the edge of the building and situated herself on it, crossing her legs and leaning back as her gaze focused in on Naruto.**

 **Naruto seemed to take it in stride and sat himself back down on the floor, meeting Blake's intense gaze with his own nonchalant one.**

 **Neither side spoke for a moment before the raven haired female broke the little staring contest and turned her head to the side, casting her sights on the front of Beacon Academy.**

 **"Everybody began to worry about where you had gone off to after what happened in the lunch hall. I was lucky enough to be the first to find you."**

"Heh...uh...sorry everybody..." Naruto said sheepishly.

 **Naruto nodded his head, "So are you gonna bring them here or take me to them?"**

 **The dark themed Huntress to be turned her eyes back on her blond companion before speaking, "I'll let them know where I found you and that you were alright as well...after I get some questions answered."**

 **Deciding to have some fun with the stoic girl, Naruto grinned and spoke, "Curiosity killed the cat you know."**

Everyone groaned, except for Yang. She silently applauded the joke.

"...You're almost as bad as Yang..." Blake said.

"Other me!" Naruto groaned.

 **Blake's gaze went from curious to cold and deadly in the blink of an eye.**

 ** _'Does he know?'_**

 **Deciding that it was better if she played it off, Blake continued, "Not many people would have interfered in that fight, let alone react in such an angry manner."**

 **Still unfazed by the ravenette's cold and distant demeanor, Naruto shrugged, "I'm not 'many people'."**

 ** _'Though I could be thanks to a certain jutsu hehe,'_ the blond chuckled at his own in joke.**

The residents of Konoha all chuckled at the joke on Naruto's numbers when producing Shadow Clones.

 **Seeing that she wasn't getting anywhere by trying to dance around the question, Blake decided that the straightforward and blunt path would be the better option,**

"Straightforward and blunt dowork better for me. No guessing games, just saying what you mean." Naruto pointed out.

"I hear ya, Naruto..." Ruby muttered. She hated guessing games when it came to what people meant. If they had something to say, just say it.

 **"Why were you so angered by that fight? Being angry I could understand, but you looked downright furious, at not just that jerk Cardin, but at Professor Goodwitch as well."**

"Oh boy...here we go..." Naruto sighed.

Blake nodded.

 **Naruto sighed before turning to look up at the stars above, "One of the things I can't stand to see is someone picking on someone else, because of something they don't understand, for something that the victim can't control. That girl didn't choose to be born a Faunus. Cardin chose to be a jackass. As for why I was mad at Professor Goodwitch? Simple. She and any of the other professors could have easily put a stop to it and even stopped it from happening again in the future, but they chose not to simply because if they interfered it would have looked like they sided with the Faunus, and with the White Fang being the spokespeople for the Faunus, well it wouldn't have gone over well."**

 **Blake couldn't help but to agree with Naruto. Even if the Faunus didn't want to be represented as a whole by the less than savory actions of the White Fang of recent years, there wasn't much they could do about it.**

Blake winced at that.

 **The White Fang had once been a group of Faunus who fought, peacefully, for equal rights for their fellow Faunus and fought to put an end to the years of discrimination against said group. There had been progress made, but it was slow going and many Faunus began to tire from the constant struggle to prove themselves. From there it all went out of control and in recent years, the White Fang had turned to violent acts of terrorism to get their point across.**

"Great...another Akatsuki..." Naruto groused, not pleased at all.

 **Was it effective?**

 **That was a question many asked, and none could give a solid answer to.**

"Um...No!" Naruto said. "All it does is make Faunus-haters look right! Sure it was slow going with the peaceful methods, but it got the results the Faunus WANTED! You can't rush an important goal without screwing it up! All changing to fear tatics did was make the Faunus look like rabbid, murderous beasts to both the ones who did and didn't already feel that way!"

Blake stared at Naruto and how passionate he was when he said that. It shocked her just how strongly he felt about it. And he was absolutly right about it, too.

Blake found herself wondering how a meeting between Naruto and her parents would go, since her dad was the founder of the White Fang back when it was an equal rights movement rather than a terrorist organization.

 **Because of how sensitive the topic was many people took a sort of neutral stance and chose to neither help nor hinder the discrimination and hate crimes against the Faunus.**

"Oh, that's a load of bull! I get its a tricky topic, but how blind can people be?! That group doesn't represent these Faunus people as a whole; that's just an excuse that further keeps everyone from realizing that the Faunus _are_ people who live in Remnant and defend it just like _humans_ do, ttebane!" Kushina snapped.

Blake felt herself tearing up again. As someone that saw the devision between humans and Faunus her entire life and sought to change it, as someone that wanted equality between the two...people like these who judged not on what a person couldn't help, but rather on what kind of person someone chose to be...

She felt someone nudge her and saw Kakashi handing her a box of tissue, the visible portion of his face and the shifts in the cloth of his mask making it clear he was smiling.

Blake took them with a greatful nod, before drying her eyes. These Konoha people, the other members of Team RWBY, and the members of Team JNPR...she just felt her heart break and melt with happiness she knew them!

 **Still what made Blake curious was Naruto's tone of voice and the words he used. He spoke like he knew personally what the Faunus were going through. It also said that he wasn't exactly a fan of the White Fang's decision to turn to fear tactics to achieve their goal.**

Dabbing at her eys, Blake nodded. So Naruto was pro-Faunus, but Anti-White Fang...at least the _current_ White Fang. If their methods hadn't changed, he would have no issue with the group. She could easily understand that better than anyone.

 **"Why do you care so much? Usually the only people who are so invested are the Faunus themselves and you don't look any Faunus I've seen."**

 **This was a question Naruto had prepared for the moment he had found out about Faunus and the discrimination against them. Seeing as how he was trying to keep the fact that he was a shinobi and Jinchuuriki from becoming public knowledge, he and Kurama decided to go with the perfect cover.**

Naruto shifted. He was getting sick of these lies his other was having to go by!

 **Naruto turned to Blake and stared her down. While normally this action wouldn't have been too surprising, what the young woman saw in Naruto's eyes caused her to gasp.**

 **Gone were the normally bright blue eyes that usually greeted those who looked into the blond's eyes. Instead what stared into Blake's own amber eyes were twin pools of burning, vivid crimson with the slit pupils of a creature of the feline or fox family. The six marks that marred Naruto's tan cheeks were now thick lines that were visible even in the dim light of the moon and stars.**

 **Then it hit Blake.**

 ** _'How has no one else figured it out? For goodness' sake, Yang's nickname for him is Foxy!'_**

 **Still reeling from the small revelation, Blake only muttered a single sentence, "You're a Faunus."**

"Similar, not exact..." Naruto cringed.

"Same side of the fence either way, you know what the Faunus go through and want to help fix things." Blake said, smiling at him in reassurance.

 **Naruto grinned, showing off the sharpened canines that now poked out of his lips, "I'm surprised no else has called me on it yet."**

 **Blake was then hit with another small epiphany. Faunus had senses far more similar to the animals they exhibited which meant that from the looks of Naruto had an enhanced sense of smell.**

 **"You know don't you?"**

 **Naruto shrugged casually, "What? About you being a cat Faunus? Yeah, Kurama was the one who picked up on it when we first met you. Said you reeked of cat."**

 **The now revealed cat Faunus huffed at the jab at her smell. She was still a teen girl and very much so took pride in her appearance and being told that she "reeked of cat" was less than endearing.**

 **Though she was distracted from the sort of insult when she noticed that Kurama had awoken and was staring at her with the same crimson eyes that were now in place of Naruto's usual sapphires.**

 **The night seemed to be full of revelations for Blake as she now realized how connected Naruto and Kurama really were.**

 **"You're a fox Faunus. That's how you can understand Kurama."**

"Is that a thing? Them knowing how to talk to animals?" Weiss asked.

"Uncommon, but yeah. That's a thing Faunus can do." Blake shrugged.

 **It wasn't unusual for Faunus to be able to communicate with the animal they were aligned to, but it wasn't exactly common either. It was usually a sign of a Faunus who was far more animalistic than they were human.**

"Funny...seeing as Faunus are given a bad impression of humanity because of the way people treat them, you'd think they'd feel like they should be more animalistic..." Kakashi scoffed.

Blake nodded. "There are those who think and feel that way among Faunus."

 **Which didn't connect with Naruto. The only visible signs that showed he wasn't human were his whisker marks and eyes and it seemed like he could turn those features, sans the whiskers, on and off at will, something she had never even heard of.**

Blake frowned. That wasn't exactly true...

 **Most Faunus who wanted to blend in with humans had to resort to various kinds of clothing or makeups to do so. If there was a method that Naruto could teach to others to hiding the more noticeable of features, then he would be like a prophet for many Faunus who simply wanted to live their lives without worrying about the harsh words and reactions to their being a Faunus.**

 **"How can you hide your features like that?"**

 **Naruto grinned and decided to give into his more foxy side, "What? Tired of the bow?"**

 **Blake narrowed her eyes before asking another question, "How did you know?"**

 **"Bows don't twitch, Blake," was Naruto's simple reply.**

"Yeah...think we should have noticed that." Yang said as she looked at her partner's head, waiting. Blake's bow twitched right on cue.

 **Deciding to answer her other question, the blond Uzumaki continued, "As for hiding my features, I don't know. It's just something I'm able to do. Maybe it's cuz my mom was a Faunus and my dad was a human. Who knows."**

Kushina gave an amused shak of her head. From what she'd seen, Faunus and Jinchuriki were similar enough for that to be the case.

 **There went her hopes of Naruto being able to teach such a valuable ability.**

Naruto winced like he'd been stabbed and turned to Blake. But before he could say anything, she beat him to it.

"It's all right...what's stoping you is the sheer fact that its something that you _can't_ teach. You would if the option was avalible to you, but the choice isn't yours to make." Blake hugged him. It was funny...her friend Ilia Amitola and her had this exact same talk. Illia had been utterly consumed with crippling self-loathing over how "lucky" she was over how her Faunus trait as a chameleon granted her the ability to change the color of her skin, hair and eyes, allowing her to blend in with her environment, and even pass off as being fully human rather than being seen as a Faunus. She'd hated herself for having that ability while other Faunus didn't, so while she could be spared it, she had to see other Faunus be descriminated against. She'd hated that so badily...

She and Blake had become friends after Blake had comforted her this exact same way. Illia wishing she could share her ability with other Faunus, but knowing she couldn't. The guilt it had left Illia with had almost driven her suicidal before Blake had stopped and gotten through to the chameleon-girl.

Blake wondered how Illia was doing these days...

 **Though the tid bit that Naruto was technically only a half Faunus was interesting. Couplings between Faunus and humans were almost non-existent and usually the children born of said relationships were human, never displaying any traits of their Faunus parent. Something about Faunus genes being recessive.**

 **If what Naruto said was true then he was a unique case.**

 **While Blake contemplated the information she had been given, Naruto gave a mental sigh of relief. While it was all a passable half truth,**

Naruto flinched.

 **it was the best cover he and Kurama could come up with to explain both his whiskers and his transformation when he used Kurama's chakra. Of course that explanation would be blown to bits if anyone ever saw him actually use the Bijuu Cloak. There would be no way he could lie his way out of that one.**

"That case, hope it happens so I can finally come clean..." Naruto muttered.

Blake put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. She understood that. Naruto didn't like all the half-truths and secrets; he wanted to be honest with them, but the truth was just too strange.

 **On the other hand the likelihood of him even using the Cloak was slim to none. He only really needed it if there was someone who outclassed him in every way, and after Kurama's training the only people who could do so were Kage level shinobi, something he doubted Remnant had.**

 **Of course the other scenario where the Cloak would be called upon was if he was beyond furious. Again thanks to Kurama's help in better controlling his emotions, someone or something would have to make him want to rip them to shreds with his bare hands for that to be the case.**

 **"So why do you hide your features?" Blake asked out of curiosity.**

 **Naruto smirked as he allowed Kurama's chakra to recede back into the seal, taking with it the eyes and fangs, "Why do you?"**

"Touché." The feline said with a nod of aknowlagement.

 **Blake had no answer. It was a good response.**

 **"But the real reason is the fear. Most Faunus' features don't look all that threatening. Your cat ears and eye color aren't all that scary. Glowing red eyes and fangs? That's something out of a nightmare and the last thing I want is for people to run screaming, because I smiled."**

 **The amber eyed teen nodded in agreement. First seeing those burning red eyes staring at her had sent a shiver of fear down her spine, like her instincts were telling her to run as far away as possible.**

Blake winced, feeling like she should aplogize for that, but not knowing how.

 **"So then I take it you don't want me to tell anyone else?"**

 **Naruto shrugged as he stretched, "I don't really care if people know I'm a Faunus. If they look at me differently because of it then oh well, not much I can do. Though I will probably tell my team just because I trust them and don't think they'd care."**

"We don't." The other members of RWBY and the members of JNPR all said as Blake stared, then she smiled.

 **Blake seemed to ponder Naruto's statement before sighing. It wasn't like she didn't trust her team to not look at her any differently, it was really just her own issue with actually letting people in after everything she had been through in the past few months. She had left one life behind and was trying so hard to build a new one, one away from the lifestyle that had caused her to leave a certain group.**

Blake squirmed again.

 **The young Faunus was shocked when she saw Naruto sitting next to her, never having seen him move.**

 **"You're secret's safe with me. I know what its like to fear how the people close to you will react to something so...out of the ordinary.**

"Sucks all around...feel like a dirty lier, but you feel you have to in order for them to accept you, the fear's like a guillotine blade..." Naruto shivered.

Blake nodded, fully agreeing.

 **I will say this though, the longer you wait, the harder it'll be to explain why you hid it in the first place."**

 **Brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, Blake joined Naruto in gazing at the nighttime sky, finding herself far more calm and comfortable than she ever had before.**

Blake smiled again.

 **Odd how the most hyperactive and goofy person she knew, outside of Yang and her sister Ruby,**

"Hey!" The siblings cried in unison at that.

 **was able to make her feel so tranquil and at peace. Another thing to add to the list of oddities that surrounded Naruto Uzumaki.**

"Naruto's good at that." Kakashi said with a small smile under his mask.

* * *

 **The following day saw Naruto joined by the other members of team NNPR and team RWBY as they made their way to he main arena of Beacon Academy.**

 **The night before had been surprisingly uneventful despite the "revelations" it held.**

 **Naruto had gone ahead and told his team about his being a "Faunus" and their reactions were less than surprising. Pyrrha just smiled and told him that something like that didn't matter to her and that she would always be his friend.**

 **Ren was not at all fazed and simply stated that it only made sense. Nora was the only really noteworthy reaction, having been curious about the marks on his cheeks from when she had first seen him. Now knowing that he was a Faunus and that the marks were actually whiskers and not just scars or odd birthmarks, Nora was tempted to pet them. And pet them she did.**

Naruto went pale at that. Oh no...not that...! Anything but that!

He didn't want to have a fruneral for his dignity like this!

 **This of course led to all of team NNPR finding out that, like any canine or feline, Naruto's whiskers were sensitive to touch.**

"Can somebody please kill me?" Naruto moaned.

Blake pat him on the back, having a sinking feeling what was going to happen and wished she could prevent it. Poor Naruto...

Mikoto walked over and placed a hand on Naruto's head before the space around him swirled as Naruto was sucked into the Kamui's alternate time–space dimension created by her Mangekyō Sharingan. At least he wouldn't need to hear what happened next.

 **Being turned into a purring mess like a common house pet was something Naruto's pride would never be able to live down and Nora was more than happy to exploit this newfound "weakness". On the bright side Pyrrha had offhandedly commented that it was cute and even Ren had cracked a smile and laughed at seeing his team leader turned into putty by some light petting of the face.**

Everyone froze, then looked at one another before all bur Mikoto and Blake roared with sheer laughter at that!

"SHUT UP!" Blake snapped. Didn't they understand how embaressing that was?! While Naruto may not have been a Faunus, she'd known plenty that had dealt with embaressing topics like!

After everyone calmed down and returned their attention to the book, Mikoto released Naruto from her Kamui dimention and he thanked her, which elected a flinch from the woman for some reason; Ruby resumed reading.

 **Of course Team RWBY, minus a certain black cat, were curious as to what had led to all of the drama and Naruto had decided to tell about his half true secret. Blake, having already found out the night prior, was unfazed. Weiss brushed it off in her usual arrogance and said that Naruto was still just a dumb blond, a comment that earned her an angry glare from both Yang and Naruto.**

Both Yang and Naruto glared at Weiss for that comment.

 **Even still Naruto could see that Weiss was just being Weiss**

"Weiss being Weiss, huh?" the heiress said, narrowing her eyes at the pair, matching them glare for glare.

 **and knew that she was saying she didn't care about his not being entirely human, in her own unique way.**

"Oh..." Naruto blinked, droping his glare.

 **Ruby had given him a hug and told him that it didn't matter to her if he was a Faunus or not, he was her first friend at Beacon and that's all that mattered to her.**

Both Naruto and Blake smiled at Ruby. It was good seeing she was that kind of person who didn't care about things like that, and what mattered to her was the nature of a person's character.

 **Yang had given him a noogie and commented that it just gave her nickname for him an even better basis.**

"I would do that." Yang nodded with a smirk.

 **While not exactly being the complete truth, Naruto was happy to see how his new friends felt about him. It felt good to know that even now, so far from home and his precious people, he had new precious people who saw him for who he was.**

Naruto and his parents all smiled at that, feeling touched and greatful.

 **It also made him feel a bit guilty for lying to them and keeping so much hidden from them.**

"I HATE that!" Naruto cringed.

 **Kurama was swift to remind him of the consequences that would follow if Naruto allowed that guilt to force him to spill his entire backstory. It was not a matter of trust, but a matter of protecting them from not only those who would no doubt come for Naruto for whatever reason they may choose as well as protecting them from Naruto himself.**

 **Knowing that he couldn't just toss Justu around like they were going out of style kept Naruto at a level that seemed more fitting for someone of his age, at least in Remnant. Sure there were still plenty of people who could no doubt defeat him, both Ozpin and Glynda being on that list, but to do so would no doubt force them to a level they hadn't fought at since their youth.**

"...You give lessons?" Yang asked as all the others from Remnent looked interested.

"No." Naruto shot down flatly.

 **Bottom line was that by not spilling his guts, Naruto was making sure his friends were kept safe...well as safe as they could be with the whole career choice of being a Hunter/Huntress.**

 **Needless to say the previous day had been quite eventful, for Naruto at least. Today was panning out to be another eventful day as well.**

"How so?" Kushina asked.

 **Ozpin had caught wind of the would have been fight in the cafeteria and had decided a fitting punishment for both Naruto and Cardin.**

"But Naruto didn't do anything wrong!" Ruby protested.

 **Seeing as how Beacon was training future soldiers, what better way to settle a dispute than with combat? Obviously it wouldn't be a no holds bar fight. The match would be something more of a regulated spar with one of the professors acting as referee and the shields all of Beacon's arenas were outfitted with turned on to ensure that there was no serious injuries.**

 **This would allow Cardin and Naruto to settle their beef with each other in a relatively safe and monitored environment. The "prize" for the winner of this impromptu exhibition? Getting away scot-free.**

 **Well for Naruto at least. Cardin would be penalized for bullying another student regardless of if he won or not.**

"I'm liking this Ozpin guy." Naruto said, starting to smile, as were his parents.

 **By winning though he would have his sentence lightened to some degree. While Naruto didn't technically do anything wrong, being stopped by Glynda before he could actually hit Cardin, he still had attempted to harm another student and then disrespected a professor. Thus his punishment was having to fight in the match and, if he lost, serving the equivalent of Cardin's own sentence.**

 **Of course both teams NNPR and RWBY hardly saw this as a punishment, having full confidence that their blond friend would have no troubles in triumphing over Cardin. In their eyes this was just going to be an entertaining show of seeing Cardin get what he deserved.**

"There's a way to record this, right?!" Jaune asked, almost begging. Cardin was a jerk and the Arc still remembered being blackmailed by the guy.

 **As the two teams entered into the main entrance way to the arena, the group of teens stopped as the fighter's entrance was separate from the one for the audience.**

 **Slinging an arm around her fellow blond's shoulder, Yang grinned as she gave Naruto a little pep talk, "Kick that jerk-face's ass Foxy!"**

 **Well a Yang version of a pep talk at least.**

"A good pep talk, you mean." Yang said.

 **Having said her peace, Yang moved aside only to be replaced by her younger sister.**

 **"Kick his butt Naruto! We'll be cheering you on the whole time!"**

"Hey! You can't just hijack my pep talk, Rubies!" Yang complained.

 **These kids truly were wordsmiths of the highest calibre.**

The sarcasim made Kakashi nod, proud of his student.

 **Weiss decided to throw in her own two cents to the conversation, "Don't be too much of an idiot."**

 **Ah yes, a speech that would motivate even the laziest of bums. Weiss truly used her high class upbringing to craft such words of vigor and inspiration.**

Weiss glared at Naruto, cheeks puffed in annoyance at the jab at her. She wasn't one for speeches, ok! Sitting around but refusing to do anything more than spout words was what her "father" and brother were good at, not her!

 **Blake only offered a nod, though if one looked closely they could see the hidden glee in her amber eyes. She usually didn't condone violence as a solution to a problem, but even she had to agree that Cardin needed a good ass kicking and who better to give it to him than blond most thought of as only a childish joker.**

 **She wondered if it was too late to run back to her room to grab a camera. The look on Cardin's face would be priceless.**

"Where's a way to record this?!" Blake and Jaune both moaned in dispare over missing the chance to tape Cardin's public humiliation!

 **As team RWBY left to take their front row seats, Naruto's own team decided it would be a good time to give their own speeches.**

 **"Break his legs!"**

 **One could always count on Nora to be the one to give such eloquent and noteworthy speeches. A voice and mind that only came every generation.**

Nora cackled, too giddy at the suppossed compliment to notice the sacasim.

 **Ren offered a nod before turning to take his seat with Nora.**

Ren shrugged, "Man of few words, and not like Naruto needs a pep talk. He'll will no matter what."

 **Left alone, Naruto and Pyrrha were silent for a few moments, Naruto still trying to understand how he ended up with the strange ones as friends and Pyrrha trying to think of what to say to her captain and close friend to really motivate him.**

 **Of course most people would agree that with Pyrrha being as attractive as she was and Naruto being a teen male, such a task wasn't really that hard and may not even require words if done right. Then again for comedy's sake we must drag as many awkward and hilarious moment out of Naruto and Pyrrha's relationship as was possible before moving to such a stage.**

"No way...fourth wall jokes?!" Yang laughed. "Those are great!"

Naruto and Pyrrha both flushed with embaressment at the relationship remark.

 **Nonetheless it wasn't long before the attractive red head of team NNPR decided on a course of action.**

 **Naruto was caught off guard when Pyrrha hugged him, saying a quick, "Good luck," before letting go and smiling at him.**

 **Naruto offered his own smile before replying with a, "Thanks."**

 **It was Pyrrha's turn to be surprised when Kurama leapt from Naruto's shoulders to hers.**

 **"I won't need his help and the lazy bum would rather just sit and watch the fight," Naruto explained.**

"But there's always a reason for overkill!" Nora and Yang whined.

Everyone stared at them.

"That...is frightening..." Ren and Ruby both shuddered at last.

"Those two must never hang out with just the two of them." Naruto said, pointing at the destruction-prone girls.

The others all nodded vigerously.

 ** _'Please, that shy Hyuuga girl could have beaten that fool with little problems. Me staying with you would only disturb my nap time. Wake me when you're done toying with that pitiful ningen_ (human) _.'_**

"Lazy bum indeed." Jaune said with a nod.

 **Pyrrha laughed before reaching her hand to Kurama's head, running her fingers gently through the soft fur around his ears and brow.**

 **With one last wave the red head left to join the rest of their friends in the stands.**

 **As Naruto made his way to finally enter the arena and start his fight, he was once more stopped from doing so, this time by a group of four that he had never seen before.**

"Hey! Cocoo and her team!" Ruby smiled.

 **The one in front, a girl a year or so older than Naruto dressed in a combination of blacks and browns, her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses and a hat covering the top portion of her brown hair, was the one to first speak.**

 **"Hey! You're Naruto Uzumaki right?"**

 **Despite being a little put off by the appearance of these random, to Naruto, people, the blond haired Uzumaki nodded.**

 **The apparent leader of the team continued her speech, "We're Team CFVY (Coffee) and this is Velvet," here the young woman gestured to the only other female member of the team, a shy looking thing with rabbit ears that marked her as a Faunus. Naruto recognized her as the girl Cardin had been bullying in the first place.**

"Oh!" Kushina said as everyone realized that the group was there to thank Naruto fro standing up for the rabbit girl earlier.

 **Continuing on the still unnamed leader kept talking, "We just wanted to say thanks. Velvet usually doesn't like to stand up for herself and so we usually are there to make sure people like that ass-hat Winchester don't mess with her. Unfortunately we weren't there, but we heard that you at least tried to step in to help her and for that we'd like to thank you Whiskers."**

Everyone smiled at that.

 **Naruto chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, "It was no big deal. I hate people like Cardin and I thought he needed some help with taking that stick out of his ass."**

Everyone laughed at that.

"Good one!" Yang praised Naruto.

 **The older teen laughed while the other members of her team cracked a smile, Velvet trying and failing to hide her giggles behind her hand.**

 **"You know what? I like you Whiskers. You actually got a pair on you, unlike most of these pansies. Give that bastard Cardin a good one for us yeah?"**

"Yes ma'am!" Naruto laughed with a playful sallute.

 **Without a word more, team CFVY made their exit, leaving Naruto to ponder on the strange events and people that seemed to gravitate towards him.**

 ** _'I swear that girl reminded me way too much of Anko-sensei. God I hope she doesn't have a thing for my blood!'_**

"Wait...what?!" Jaune yelped.

 **Naruto couldn't help but to shudder at the memory of a certain purple haired Jounin who took great pleasure in teasing him whenever she got the chance.**

"Note to self: meet this Anko chick." Yang said, nodding to herself.

 **Pushing those unpleasant, or pleasant depending on who you asked, memories aside, Naruto turned to face the entrance way that stood between him and Cardin.**

 **With a vulpine grin stretching across his whiskered face, Naruto began to walk, confidently striding towards his target.**

 **Cardin Winchester had no idea that he was dealing with Naruto Uzumaki, crowned Prankster King of Konoha.**

"Wait...is that it?!" Jaune cried, feeling cheated.

"Fight must be next chapter." Minato shrugged, "and look at it this way: you have time to find ways to record Cardin's being humiliated." he said.

Both Blake and Jaune bolted to find a camcorder somewhere in this space they were all in at that.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author Note: Hello fans of my story. Bit of bad news.**_

 _ **FCC out to pull the abolisment of freely neutral internet again. So with that in mind, I ask that you use either (or better yet, both) of the following links and take a stand to keep the internet neutral, because let's face it: what'll happen if sites like FF have to shut down because of a couple of greedy bigwigs?**_

 _ **If you truely like this story and others like it, support a neutral internet.**_

 _ **danlev . deviantart journal/Will-Net-Neutrality-Survive-690858356**_

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* * *

As soon as the book was set down, Mikoto abruptly stood and bolted into one of the other rooms.

Naruto frowned. Ok...he was getting to the bottom of that. Mikoto was acting weird. Granted, he hadn't known the Uchiha woman, having only seen her in passing when she'd picked up Sasule from the academy when they were both little kids, but one couldn't be a jinchuriki without learning to read people. It was a survival skill. And Mikoto was making it obvious she was being eaten away at by something.

At a look from his mother, he stood and followed Mikoto.

Entering the room Mikoto was occupying, Naruto yelped as he saw the space around her spiraling inwards, holding a senbone needle, and muttering to herself about "better this way".

With a yelp at realizing Mikoto intended to suck herself into her own Kamui then gorge her own eyes out with a needle to strand herself there, Naruto lunged and caught her by the wrist as her head started to get sucked in.

At the grip on her wrist, Mikoto halted sucking herself into her own kamui. But seeing who it was, she jerked away like she had been burned.

"Ok...what reason were you trying to trap youself in your own pocket dimension?!" Naruto demanded,

"I deserve it! After everything...I deserve to be hated, you have that right more than anyone!"

"WHAT?! Why do you want me to hate you so much?! Huh?! What reason would make you want to have me hate you, much less enough to where I'd let you do something like that to yourself?!" Naruto snapped.

Mikoto laughed brokenly, spreading her hands wide, "Given all my abject failings in life, why shouldn't I be hated?! I failed to stop Fugaku-teme from ripping apart Itachi's childhood at four years old; WHAT kind of a father takes his four-year-old son to see a mountain range of corpses and tells him he was suppose to add to lists of deaths because he was expected to like it was a good thing?!

"Wait...WHAT?!" Naruto yelped. Itachi's dad had done WHAT?! Good lord! Just how much of an unfeeling, stick-in-the-ass-sideways bastardhad Itachi and Sauke's father been?!

Mikoto nodded "Imagin how I felt hearing that from Itachi AFTER my eldest was killed! He kept something that horrific bottled up inside him for all that time, I couldn't save my son since it was already too late!...then there was how I did nothing about the Uchiha's attempt at a coup, even though I didn't even WANT it to happen! That resulted in Itachi being forced to slaughter our entire clan...he spared Sasuke because he couldn't bring himself to kill his little brother, but Sasuke became so black-hearted and it just kept getting darker and darker until there was nothing left but an endless abyss of murderous hatred that he became an international criminal just so he could have more people to hate and kill after committing Fratricide! And worst of all; I failed both YOU AND KUSHINA —the life you could have had and the role the Uchiha Clan had in destroying it, how I never even helped you...Kushina Uzumaki was my best friend and more importantly your mother, and I failed by not adopting you and taking care of my best friend's son the one time she really needed me—after she and Minato died and you were orphaned! I didn't even get to see you onceor ever let you know I knew her! I've done nothing but fail the people who truly mattered to me when they needed me most over and over again!"

Naruto winced at that, sympathy and pity reigned supreme among his emotions towards Mikoto after hearing that. Truth be told, he didn't blame or hate her for that. Given Fugaku's plans, as well as the Uchiha's and Kurama's history with one another (a large case in point being that madman Madara's showcasing his Sharingan hypnosis being used on the kitsune way back when during his fight with the First Hokage) it would only have ended poorly in one way or another if she tried giving Naruto a home and family by taking him in. Even if people didn't misinterpret why she would take him in, Kurama would have gone absolutely rabid for the ways the Uchiha Clan wronged him in the past. If that didn't happen, the rest of the Uchiha clan would have wanted to see Naruto become weaponized for them to use. If Mikoto gave Naruto the kind of life he deserved, then he would have developed a sense of attachment to her that the rest of the Uchiha clan would have exploited. Worse case scenario, they would have tried breaking the seal open to use Kurama...

"It's OK Mikoto, it wasn't your fault." Naruto reassured the distressed woman.

Mikoto gave a hollow smile. She was glad that Naruto was forgiving, but that only fueled her guilt. Not her fault?! "I both could and should have acted against Fugaku...developed a counterinsurgency within the Uchiha Clan...sometthing...anything..."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Now you're just torturing yourself by dwelling on what could've been and having it eat away at you the more you do so as a way you can stay in self-loathing. Sure you knew about the coup, but it seems to me that was more along the lines of it being that Itachi was the ONLY one within the clan who COULD to warn about the coup. No one else.

Think about it Mikoto...Itachi was the perfect choice to inform the Hokage. Not only did the clan trusted him completely as the most powerful Uchiha seen since Madara, but he also had the best connections to pass on the information as an ANBU Black Ops Captain, who gets his orders directly from the Hokage. Especially given that since it was the POLICE who were out to take over, they would have been watchful hawks within the system, so they would have used their position to their advantage and silenced anyone the moment they suspected someone was leaking information. What COULD you have gotten away with?"

Mikoto flinched. The truth in that stung. What could she have done to halt the plans of the Uchiha clan? Especally with the poison of Madara's legacy becoming so potant within so many of their members?

"Hey...you have the Mangekyō Sharingan? But you aren't the type for the horrendous atrocities that are usually committed to obtain that level. Your too humane for that." Naruto said, trying to find a topic that wouldn't leave her feeling guilty.

At that, Mikoto's Mangekyō Sharingan, which was in the form of two overlapping trefoils of red on black looked back at Naruto sadly"The Mangekyō Sharingan is triggered by a great emotional surge that accompanies a highly traumatic event. It was between Kushina's death and my own failings to take care of you that gave me this, how couldn't I not get it?" she asked.

Naruto winced at that. That was actually the opposite of what he intended. "I'm so sorry." he apologized, the words tasted ashen, stale, and hollow in his mouth.

Mikoto shook her head. "It's ok, you didn't know. But, about that part about me being too humane, I actually find it funny—if I ever deserved to say I was one in the first place, given how I made so many regrets by playing the obedient housewife, pretending all of the most important things were someone else's problems...I realize now that I gave up all the power to change things willingly."

Naruto shrugged, "Everyone has regrets. Makes mistakes. Besides, you were married to a guy that thought making his son see a mountain range of corpses and telling him he was suppose to add to lists of deaths because he was expected to like it was a good thing, you said that about Fugaku yourself! Tell me, does THAT sound like a guy that wouldn't beat and press the life and willfulness out of the people around him until they forgot what it was like to decide things for themselves?"

Mikoto sighed. That was true...Itachi had changed after that. Blocked nearly everyone else out...she couldn't help him because of that. If she had, then things could and might have gone differently with the history of her clan and the legacy of the Uchiha.

She took a deep breath, looking down at her hands, "Fugaku...he hated your father, you know...said that if people could make such a fuss over Minato, why wasn't any of the Uchiha recognized during the third War, or why didn't anyone nominate HIM for Hokage. Idiot...the Uchiha Clan's bitterness was undeserved for one simple factor: They disregarded Madara's legacy in regards to how the Uchiha Clan was viewed, not in Konoha, but just as, if even not more importantly, the OTHER villages around it. The Third Ninja War was Konoha against Iwagakure, something which played a significant factor in why Fugaku wasn't considered for Hokage.

Madara had, in the past, approached iwa at what was SUPPOSED to be a peace treaty, and declared that despite the alliance between their villages Konoha was to remain the dominant one and anything that Konohagakure requested, Iwagakure was to obey, all while Madara proceeded to use his abilites to demolish their village and kill their people.

Ōnoki, who was a suvivor of Madara's assult on Iwagakure, was the current Tsuchikage during the Third War. Looking at those facts, it would be safe to assume Ōnoki would have seen it as an insult if there was a Hokage from Madara's clan right after Hiruzen had established a policy of reconciliation to bring an end to the fighting with an unprecedented offer to not seek reparations from Iwagakure, and the war would have resumed as soon as Fugaku was sworn in as Hokage and more people would have died."

Naruto sighed. "Guy was a Jonin and a cop...figuring things like that out was part of both his jobs. Yet he was so bitter, he only saw how he wasn't made a Kage? I get not liking feeling slighted, but..." he trailed off, not needing to finish.

Mikoto nodded. "I know. Bound by the past, lost in lust for power, blind to the future...its another of the dangerous flaws of the Uchiha..." she sighed, looking miserable.

"Bound by the past, huh? So how is that any different than how you're being right now?" Naruto questioned bluntly.

Mikoto stared at him.

Naruto decided to explain himself upon seeing her expression. "Look, you were in a position where you wanted to help, but there were things that took the choice to be able to out of your hands! You think I don't get that?! All that means is that you're a victim too! Why are you beating yourself up over not being able to help me when I was a kid when it's obvious there were things in the way you couldn't do anything about? I'm thankful you care...but how is your chewing on past regrets going to rewrite time and fix my life?"

Taking a deep breath, Mikoto went silent. She knew Naruto was right. It wouldn't help him...

Naruto reached out and took Mikoto's hands, causing her to look up at him. He smiled. "Never too late to find a way to make things right. You just have to want to make the choice and find a sense of redemption for whatever it is that's hurting your conscience. Just takes things going a step at a time."

Mikoto felt her eyes sting with tears and she grabbed Naruto, pulling him into a hug, clinging to him feircely and the Uchiha woman started bawling, allowing herself to completely break down.

Naruto held the woman as she wept, patting her on the back, "There, there. It's ok...it's going to be ok..." he said in a gentle, soothing tone.

* * *

Kushina smiled as she looked at her son and her best friend. She had a feeling that was the case about Mikoto's behavior.

As much as she wanted to help Mikoto, there was only one person that could honestly aid her. She needed to allow herself to feel Naruto had granted her absolution.

Sure it hurt that she couldn't help Mikoto herself, but it was the difference between "want" and "need". Kushina had wanted to help, but Mikoto needed Naruto to help her. And as long as her old friend was able to clear her conscience, Kushina was ok with that.

"I'll read this one."

"WAIT...!" Jaune cried, "We can't start yet! I haven't found anything to tape this with!"

Blake nodded.

"You'il both be too busy laughing to properly record thing while Cardin's publicly made a fool of, guys. Sorry about that." Naruto said.

"Damnit!" The two teams all swore!

 **"Ladies and gentleman, are you all ready!?"**

"YEAH!" The Remnent-born teens all cheered, looking forward to this!

 **The question that boomed out from the sound system that was built into each of Beacon Academy's arenas was answered by a roar of applause and general noise making. Very few of the people watching took any stake in either of the competitors, only being there to see what would no doubt be an entertaining fight and knowing who was fighting, how could it not be?**

"Aim to please!" Naruto said, buffing his knuckles on his shirt.

 **On one side was Naruto Uzumaki who had begun to make a name for himself at the prestigious academic institution. Many knew him as the carefree and goofy blond who could make a joke out of most anything. There was also a large portion of the male populace, and some of the female students, who envied him for being so close with Pyrrha Nikos.**

Both Naruto and Pyrrha went pink in the cheeks at that.

 **Despite all that though, many also knew the blond was not one to be messed with. It was proven time and time again in the various battle oriented classes that the blond was a surprisingly genius strategist and was more than capable of holding his own against both Grimm and fellow Huntsmen.**

The ninjas shrugged. Clashing with enemy ninja and beings like the Tailed Beasts made Grimm and school kid-Huntsmen pretty tame by compairison.

 **Cardin, while not as seemingly intelligent as his blond opponent,**

"That's an understatment!" Yang snorted as RWBY and JNPR all laughed.

 **was still the captain of his team and such a position was not so easily gained with people like Ozpin and Glynda being the deciding factors on how teams were formed.**

That killed the amusment.

 **Regardless of who won, the ensuing fight was sure to be entertaining.**

 **The announcer, a nondescript older male student who had volunteered for the job, rallied the crowd of teens with another booming call, "I said! Are! You! READY!?"**

"Start the fight already!" Nora cried.

"I wanna see Cardin get clobbered!" Jaune snarled vindictivly, agreeing with his hammer-using teammate.

 **The arena near shook from the volume of the applause and shouting the crowd let loose in response. In the observation deck that looked down on both the audience and the actual battlefield, the professors of Beacon sat, watching as their students let out their inner teenager.**

 **Glynda Goodwitch, the stern woman that she was, held a displeased frown on her face.** **She had been against Ozpin's decision to turn the young Uzumaki and Winchester's "punishment" into a sporting event, but loathe as she was to admit it, Ozpin was her boss and held final say in all matters regarding Beacon and its students, within reason of course.**

"Ugh! What a prudish old bat!" Kushina said, scrunching up her face in disgust.

"I hear ya! Sing it sister!" Yang laughed. Damn...she liked this Kushina woman!

 **Ozpin himself stood, leaning against his ever present cane, sipping on his mug of coffee. His face betrayed nothing, his silver orbs trained intently on the, as of now, empty field below.**

 **Many of his staff had questioned his decision to allow something like this to take place, none more vocal in their protests than his old friend and vice-principal, Glynda.**

"Do not like that old lady..." Naruto grumbled, he hated prudes, and he was still pissed how the woman had stopped his giving Cardin "Sir Asshole" Winchester a well-deserved fist to the face last chapter.

 **Of course many took this as Ozpin's eccentricities rearing their head, but this was far from the truth.**

"Oh?" Kakashi asked, interested.

 **Ozpin was many things, but foolish was not one of them. He was keenly aware of the delicate situation that had consumed the Faunus people. Personally he would love to see the illogical discrimination against Faunus gone** **,**

Blake perked up at that. So Ozpin was a Faunus-supporter?

 **but as the head of Beacon and a key pl** **ayer in Vale and her politics, he knew he could not make his opinions vocal. Not with the White Fang being so prominent at least.**

Blake deflated at that. Her body shaking and looking down as her eyes stung with the threat of unshead tears. Of all the...DAMNIT! WHY?! The White Fang _preventing_ those who wanted to support Faunus?! Why the hell did the organization her father started as an equal rights movement fall so damned far!?

Damn the way the White Fang began using terrorism to further its newer and older agendas under Sienna Khan's leadership after her dad stepped down!

She jerked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder, looking up, she saw Yang giving her a somber, understanding, sympathetic look as she gave her partner's shoulder a comforting squeeze.

Blake had to keep from throwning her arms around Yang's waist and weeping. It was so frustrating!

All changing to fear tatics did was make the Faunus look like rabbid, murderous beasts to both the ones who did and didn't already feel that way! All because the Faunus wanted instantious results!

And those who supported Faunus were unable to do so as long as there were those like Adam and Sienna out there! Damnit! Why was it the status que to feel force and death were to ONLY options to things?!

How come, no matter what, the gap that kept the Faunus from equality just kept widening?!

Seeing Blake's reaction and all of them figuring what was going through her mind, everyone looked at the weeping girl in black with their hearts aching and going out to her. Poor Blake...

 **Still he was less than happy with one of his students, a bright and strong Huntress to be at that, being treated in such a manner. He was also less than pleased with the manner in which his own staff members handled the situation, but that was a talk for another time.**

Hearing that, Blake recomposed herself a bit. It was good for her heart and soul to know there were those that didn't see the fallen, corrupt White Fang as represenitive of the Faunus as a whole and still treated them as people...the ones around her right now were all proof of that.

 **If he could he would have actually liked to give young Naruto a pat on the back for acting in defense of a fellow student. Unfortunately due to his position he could not do so and so Ozpin decided to settle for the next best thing, giving the blond enigma the chance to finish what Glynda had stopped.**

"I can work with that!" Naruto smirked.

 **In this way not only would he allow those who wished to see Cardin get his comeuppance, himself included, see just that, but it would also make it seem like he didn't condone the young Uzumaki's brash actions without actually having to punish said teen. A win-win situation for all really.**

 **Well except for Cardin, but he deserved what was coming to him so that didn't matter really.**

"Any chance I could go to Beacon...This Ozpin guy seriously rocks!" Naruto laughed.

Kakash blinked. Naruto...liked the way this Ozpin guy worked..enough to willingly want to go to a school in order to meet him?!

 **"First up is Cardin Winchester, captain of team CRDL (Cardinal)!"**

At that, the readers all booed and jeered.

 **The crowd of teens clapped, though there was no real vigor to it, none either liking the smug looking teen or not wanting to reveal their own prejudices against Faunus.**

"Ok...the first half of that group that dislikes Cardin, I like. The other half...can I knock their teeth in?" Naruto asked.

"Get in line, Foxy...get in line." Yang responded, cracking her knuckles..

 **Despite the lack luster greeting, the tall brunette teen managed to look as cocky as was possible, his weapon, a mace, situated on his shoulder. Garbed in armor that looked reminiscent of the kind worn in the days of the Knights, the teen managed to at least look the part of a warrior.**

Kushina snorted. "Look the part...yeah right! How much will looking be worth without the spine to back it up with action?!"

Jaune leaned back, resting his hands behind his head, looking a bit cocky at that. Oh...that reminder of Cardin's armor having rust stains between the waist and knees at Forever Fall after Jaune had saved his sorry butt made him feel good when he remembered Cardin blackmailing him.

 **"His opponent tonight is Naruto Uzumaki, leader of team NNPR!"**

"Here we go!" Naruto grinned.

 **As the blond teen calmly walked out from the shadows of the competitors hall, the stadium erupted into cheers.**

"Oh hell yeah! Welcome fit for the entrince of a hero!" Nora cheered.

"I'm no hero." Naruto said.

"That's up to the people around you, and they've decided: you're the hero. Seeing as you wanting to protect an innocent person is what lead to all this, seems to fit they recognize you that way!" Ruby said happily, stars in her eyes.

Minato, Kushina and Kakashi all laughed in agreement with the pair of Huntresses-in-training.

 **Even amongst the wall of noise that slammed into him, Naruto was easily able to make out the sounds of Yang, Ruby, Nora, and even Pyrrha cheering him on. With his enhanced hearing he was able to pinpoint where it came from and lo and behold there they sat, right at the first row of seats opposite the entrance he had come through.**

"Front row view of the entrince of our friend." Ruby smiled..

"Not to mention with Cardin coming through the entrince you guys are over, you could harrass him, too." Kushina supplied. She never did like bullies and was known for beating them to bloody pulps bare-handed when she was still in the Academy.

Blake, Yang and Nora all slapped a hand to their foreheads D'oh! They had passed that up!

 **Ruby, Yang, and Nora, being the more boisterous of his group of friends, were proudly and loudly cheering whilst waving a rather large banner that stated in bright orange letters, "Kick some butt Naruto!"**

"You know it, guys!" Naruto promised with a laugh.

 **Locking eyes with them, Naruto chuckled at their exuberance and waved to them. His eyes trailed over Weiss who was trying to look as uninterested as she could, though it was clear from the smirk on her face that she had all the confidence that Naruto could defeat Cardin.**

The Schnee girl nodded with a flip of her hair to draw added effect.

 **He shared a silent nod with Blake, the feline Faunus offering a smile and a wave of a little flag that bore the signature Uzumaki spiral on it.**

"Where did you get that?" Kushina asked, amused, finding the small, hand-held pennant flag with the Uzumaki spiral cute as the way Blake's counterpart was showing her support for her son.

 **His eyes then traveled to meet with his only male friend, Ren, who only nodded at him in acknowledgement.**

 **Finally his eyes locked with the bright green eyes of Pyrrha who was wildly waving about her own little flag.**

Kushina burst into a small giggle fit at that.

"Look like you're having fun in the stands, Pyrrha." Yang teased.

"Yang, lay off. Naruto's a good guy. Why shouldn't his friends be supportive?" Ruby said.

Pyrrha smiled. Ruby wasn't wrong about that.

 **The red head offered a smile and mouthed the words, "You can do it," to him. In return Naruto smiled and nodded before giving her a cheesy thumbs up, causing her to giggle at his carefree behavior.**

Minato and Kushina smiled at one another, nostalgic. Kushina had acted that way when Minato was in the third part of the Chunin exams...

 **What surprised him though was when he saw that team CFVY was seated not too far from his friends, cheering him on in their own way. The sunglasses wearing leader of the team used a finger to lower said shades down just far enough to offer him a flirtatious wink, something quite a few people noticed, his own team included.**

Naruto blushed.

 **The bunny eared Faunus of the team smiled demurely at him and clapped loudly to show her support**

Everyone smiled at Velet's actions, Naruto mentally compairing the long-eared Faunus to Hinata.

 **while the male members of the team quietly nodded at him, obviously not being ones for many words.**

 **"You ready to lose blondie?" Cardin called out from across the arena.**

"Famous last words..." Kakashi said with a smile under his mask.

 **Naruto decided that if his opponent wanted to try trash talk this early, he was going to begin his own little mind games as well, and who better to do that then one of the students of Kakashi Hatake?**

Kakashi blinked at that. Then smiled at Naruto. Feeling proud of this moment. Now alkthe former Copy Ninja had to worry about was Naruto's other self using _that_ move with Kushina watching this fight.

 **Taking a page out of his sensei's book Naruto slackened his posture and casually slipped his hands into his pants' pockets, closing his eyes and offering a lazy smile to top it all off, "Hmm? Did you say something?"**

Everyone either giggled or chuckled at that, Kakashi looking at the impersonation critically. "Not too bad so far." he admitted.

 **'Now if only I knew how Kakashi-sensei did that weird eye thing,' Naruto thought to himself.**

Blake studdied Kakashi's face. "Looks like a fish that has lazy eyes." she deduced.

"I do not!" Kakashi replied.

"When you're lazy, you do." Blake rebuttled.

 **To his credit Cardin only looked annoyed by Naruto's antics, "Tch, whatever. The faster I kick your ass the faster I can finish my stupid punishment."**

"Let the show begin!" Yang smirked.

 **Naruto shrugged nonchalantly in response, having been underestimated for a vast majority of his life he was used to it now. A few years ago he would have answered back to Cardin's insult by trying to show the "teme" just how strong he really was. Now? He could care less what someone like Cardin thought of him.**

 **In the end it also benefitted him. Cardin thinking so little of him would give Naruto that much more of an advantage. It would also give the blond the satisfaction of humiliating Cardin in front of a huge chunk of Beacon's student body.**

"Gonna enjoy that." Naruto confessed.

 **Seeing that the two males were ready to go and would more than likely start the fight soon regardless of if he started the match, the portly Professor Port stepped between Naruto and Cardin and spoke in a voice that boomed throughout the stadium, "This will be a match between Cardin Winchester and Naruto Uzumaki. The terms of the match have been set before this and these two young lads have already agreed to them. The Aura shields are up so feel free to let loose, but I will intervene if I feel it is getting out of hand."**

"Oh, so the rules of the Chunin Exams, eh?" Naruto blinked.

 **Naruto and Cardin nodded at the rules of the fight, having already heard from both Professor Goodwitch and Ozpin about the rules earlier that morning.**

 **"Ready?...Begin!"**

"Finally!"

 **With speed belying his body shape and size, Professor Port jumped away from what would no doubt become a miniature warzone.**

 **Cardin was quick to rush in, speeding towards Naruto with his mace poised to strike. Naruto seemed to be unfazed by this and stood there, looking as lazy as was possible.**

Naruto nodded. "Wait for it..." he muttered.

 **With a heave, Cardin gave a mighty horizontal swing of his weapon, intent on slamming it into Naruto's ribs which, even with the shields up, would no doubt crack some bones if it hit.**

 **And Naruto may have an abnormally fast healing factor thanks to his mother,**

Kushina smirked at that.

 **but that didn't mean he couldn't feel pain. He just had a higher tolerance for it than most.**

 **Still with that same lazy posture the blond ducked underneath the swing. With the balance and agility that came with being a trained shinobi, Naruto answered back with a swift side kick, throwing Cardin's feet out from under him and putting said teen flat on his ass with a surprised expression on his face.**

RWBY and JNPR both laughed at the expression on Cardin's face.

 **Naruto simply hopped away, creating space between himself and the still dazed Cardin. Deciding to add insult to injury, the blond Jinchuuriki let out a yawn, causing the crowd to erupt into laughs at the dumbstruck look on Cardin's face.**

"I feel so proud." Kakashi admitted plesently.

 **Clearly getting progressively angrier due to his opponent not taking him seriously and with the sounds of derisive laughter aimed at him not helping that, Cardin leapt to his feet and was racing towards Naruto yet again.**

 **Our blond protagonist**

"More poking at the Fourth Wall!" Yang laughed.

 **for his part looked as carefree as if he was taking a stroll through the park. When Cardin raised his mace high into the air, making it very clear that he planned to pummel Naruto into the ground, the Jinchuuriki kept the same bland look on his face.**

 **When the weapon was inches away from slamming into the blond's cranium, Naruto's friends began to worry. When Cardin's weapon smashed into the ground and a cloud of dust was kicked up, they really began to worry, and even Professor Port was ready to rush back to the field to see if the young Uzumaki was still alive after a blow like that.**

Naruto, Kakashi, Minato, Kushina, and Mikoto couldn't help but all scoff at that. What kind of decent shinobi would let such a blaringly obvious blow hit? Naruto's other self wasn't going to just stand there and take it as if he were a wall!

 **What happened next simultaneously had people laughing and teams RWBY and NNPR on the verge of a heart attack.**

 **"You really shouldn't let your opponents get behind you."**

Kakashi snickered. He remembered telling Naruto that.

 **The next thing Cardin knew, he had a mouth full of dirt.**

 **Up in the stands three very confused members of team RWBY applauded while attempting to figure just how in the world Naruto not only got behind Cardin without anyone in the stands noticing, but how he had managed to trip the brunette from so far away as well.**

 **Deciding that he**

"He?" Jaune asked.

"Suuppossed to be the word "the", but the "T" is missing." Mikoto said, studying the way the sentince was set up.

 **best person to ask was Pyrrha, someone he was known to spar with often, Ruby spoke, "Hey Pyrrha! How did Naruto manage to do all of that without anyone noticing?"**

 **Keeping her eyes glued to the match below, Pyrrha replied, "Naruto is fast, amazingly so. I don't know exactly how fast, but I've seen him just disappear. As for tripping Cardin, look closely."**

 **Deciding to listen, Yang, Ruby, and Weiss peered closely at Naruto and Cardin. As Naruto casually dodged yet another swing from Cardin, the light reflected off of something, causing them to scratch their heads.**

 **Before they could ask what it was, Blake spoke aloud, "Ninja wire. So thin it's almost impossible to see, but strong enough to cut through skin."**

"Whoa..." Ruby said.

 **Pyrrha nodded, "Correct. He usually keeps a spool of it in the pouch on his hip."**

Naruto nodded.

 **The three members of RWBY turned to their raven haired teammate quizzically, "How did you know that Blake?"**

 **Just as focused on the match as team NNPR, the teen Faunus answered without looking at her teammates, "Because that's where I got the idea for my ribbons."**

Blake nodded and the group of shinobi all grinned at her. They had a feeling that was the case.

 **Seeing Naruto dodge out of the way of yet another of Cardin's swings only for her to pull on the thin wires causing the mace wielder to trip and fall again, team RWBY could see how Blake got the idea for her ribbons.**

Blake gave Naruto a small grin, nodding at his ability with the ninja wire.

 **However there was a difference in the style in which Blake and Naruto used their chosen materials. Blake used them in tandem with her main weapon, making it all that much more deadly. Naruto was using it as his only weapon, showing just how good he was at using them and how much more skilled he was than Cardin in general.**

 **To the spectators this meant that Naruto must have trained extensively in the use of ninja wire.**

"As if! Nice guess, though, fokes!" Naruto smirked.

 **Of course that was from the truth. Naruto had just always liked using the stuff to help him in his pranks.**

"Really?" Ruby asked.

Naruto nodded.

 **He was also far and away from being a master at using the ninja tool. The only master he had encountered had been a rogue nin by the name of Akasuna no Sasori (Sasori of the Red Sands). Said rogue was a deadly threat not only because of his talent with ninja wire and its chakra equivalent, Chakra Strings, but because of how he used them to control hundreds of deadly human puppets,**

"Human puppets?" Yang asked, then looked at Naruto, "You find puppets creepy?"

"...Guy was known for making poison-and-weapon-rigged puppets out of the dead bodies of people he killed..." Naruto shuddered.

The two Remnent teams looked horrified at that. Ok...that was just goulish and twisted!

 **commanding them with the slightest twitches of his fingers.**

 **That and Cardin was just wildly swinging about in hopes of hitting him. Honestly how poorly had the rest of this guy's team done for him to be named captain?**

"I don't even wanna know." Minato winced.

"Grimm must have seen them as too pathetic to eat." Kushina summed up.

 **At first Naruto thought it was simply because he had been trained as a Shinobi, but that went out the window quickly. Pyrrha, Ruby, Ren, and even Nora put up far more of a fight than this guy did so it wasn't that there was that huge of a gap between shinobi and Huntsmen.**

The mentioned teens all smiled, pleased at the praise.

 **Tripping Cardin again by pulling on the ninja wire wrapped around his ankles, Naruto sighed before using a small burst of Fuuton (Wind Release) Chakra to cut the thin wires, freeing Cardin from their coils.**

"Ugh...he's so pathetic that I'm having to get ready to end this already?" Naruto moaned, "What a waste of time!"

 **Naruto had thought there would be more fun in messing with Cardin, but now it was just getting boring. If he was free to use his Jutsu then he would have been free to really pull off some funny and humiliating pranks, but with Ozpin and half the school watching so closely, that wouldn't be the smartest of ideas.**

Jaune muttered about being cheated at that.

 **Shrugging the blond Jinchuuriki decided to humiliate Cardin some other time where he would really be able to put his prankster skills to work.**

Everyone smirked at that.

 **As Cardin blindly rushed him, yet again, Naruto decided that he had wasted enough time and energy. Right as Cardin was inches from him, Naruto moved to the side, his arm held straight out. Before Cardin realized what happened, he was gasping for air while hung over his opponent's outstretched arm.**

"Moron!" Naruto scowled. He hated this, it was too easy! He felt like a bully just watching and hearing this.

"Cardin is pathetic." Minato said with a frown.

 **Moving his arm out from under Cardin, who now looked like an upside down U, Naruto slammed his elbow into brunette's spine with devastating force. Many had no doubt that had the Aura barriers not been up, Cardin would have possibly been paralyzed with as powerful as Naruto had hit him.**

"Yikes..." Yang and Nora both winced.

 **Even still the Aura shields could only do so much and the leader of CRDL would no doubt have a nasty bruise on his back by the end of the day.**

 **"You know for a guy that talked so much trash about me, I'd thought you'd put up a better fight. Guess I was wrong," Naruto shrugged.**

Naruto nodded along with his other at that.

 **As he taunted his downed opponent, Naruto now understood why some of his opponents liked to do it so much. It really was pretty fun to mess with your opponents. Then again they ended up getting their asses handed to them, because they had underestimated him. If anything he had been overestimating Cardin though.**

 **As said teen rose to his feet, an angry snarl on his face, Naruto had to give it to the guy, he could take a hit. The clothesline alone would have put a lesser opponent down for a few minutes. Cardin had tanked not only that but the elbow drop as well and was still getting up.**

 **Still not having learned his lesson, Cardin bum rushed Naruto one last time. Naruto raised an eyebrow before shrugging. Prepared to end the fight with one last decisive blow, the blond teen decided at the last minute to go** **out with a bang.**

 **"Uh oh," Pyrrha said as she saw the look now on Naruto's face.**

 **Weiss, along with the others, was curious to know why Pyrhha suddenly seemed so worried, "What? Blondie's got this one in the bag, so why 'Uh oh'?"**

 **"Because whenever Naruto has that look on his face, it means someone is about to be embarrassed. I just feel bad for Cardin."**

"Why?!" Jaune asked his partner.

Pyrrha shrugged.

 **Near leaping from her seat, Yang cheered loudly, "I don't! Cough him up like a hairball Foxy!"**

"I hope you know I find that offensive." Blake said giving her partner a dull glare.

Yang chuckled nervously.

 **Those near the exuberant blonde of team RWBY put palm to face at the less than funny attempt at humor.**

"Ibiki would like her jokes." Naruto said.

"The head of the torture and interagation corps? That man's a sadist! Why would...oh." Kakashi said.

Yang pouted "My jokes and puns are not a sadistic form of torture!"

The others all shook their heads in disagreement to Yang's claim. They could vouch otherwise.

 **As Cardin swung and missed, again, Naruto disappeared from sight.**

 **"Like I said, don't let your opponents get behind you. Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ogi: Sennin Goroshi!"**

Kakashi paled. CRAP! He did it! He used that move with Kushina watching! Was Naruto TRYING to get him killed?!

 **No sound was made. In fact it seemed as if the entirety of Beacon had gone eerily still. Even the wildlife had stopped moving, as if knowing that some great disturbance in nature had occurred.**

 **The first sound to be made was the muffled voice of Blake echoing throughout the arena, "Hidden Leaf Village Secret Finger Technique, One Thousands Years of Death...you can't be serious..."**

 **As Cardin was blasted into the air via poking of the booty hole, the crowd erupted into uproarious laughter, most crying or holding their stomachs in an attempt to gather some breath.**

The readers all did likewise,

"Well you did say Kakashi reads porn in front of children in public before sticking his fingers up their butt! He did that to you." Weiss smirked, seeing an oppertunity to make a pervert suffer.

At that, everything froze as Kushina abruptly stopped laughing and went rigid. Her right eye gained a heavy twitch, almost violent really, and she turned to Kakashi.

"...Exceuse me...? You...did that...to my boy...?" she said. her bangs shadowing her eyes, which had started glowing and shining a malevolent, luminous, sulfuric yellow as the Uzumaki woman's hair rise up like a halo of flames.

Kakashi paled and tried bolting, but Kushina grabbed him and hauled him into one of the other rooms, slamming the door shut behind her.

"...There goes a good man..." Minato said.

"He will be missed." Naruto voiced.

Ren nodded.

Jaune salluted, leaning back and hummung a furneral martch.

"He going to be all right?" Weiss asked.

"Knowing Kushina...no. And best we don't even think of trying a rescue." Mikoto said before turning back to the book.

 **Yang was literally rolling on the floor, holding her sides in laughter.**

"I would!" Yang agreed.

 **Ruby had covered her mouth in a poor attempt to quell the laughter, but she soon joined her sister on the floor.**

Ruby giggled nervously at that.

 **Weiss looked horrified, but was at the same time guffawing behind her hand.**

Weiss looked scandalized, her cheeks flushed.

 **Blake still had her palm planted firmly on her face, though a blush could be seen stretching across her cheeks.**

Blake shook her head, well...she couldn't say Cardin didn't deserve that.

 **Nora was holding onto Ren so that she didn't end up like Ruby and Yang. Said raven haired male was meanwhile trying his hardest to not laugh, and instead ended up looking slightly constipated.**

Renburied his face in his hands as Nora laughed at the expression of his other. Constipated?! He looked...?! "Need to learn to express myself more." he muttered.

 **Pyrrha was shaking her head and laughing at the same time, thinking, 'Only you would do something like this Naruto.'**

"When he's mother's done with Kakashi, he will be." Minato shuddered.

 **In the Professor's booth there were many looks of pure surprise and some even trying as hard as they could to not burst out into laughter like their students. The blonde deputy Headmistress of Beacon however was not with her colleagues and had no problems in voicing her opinion on Naruto's "attack", "The...audacity! I have never seen something so appalling, and to have the sheer shameless bravado to call that an attack!"**

 **"I think it was fitting," came the voice of Ozpin as he sipped on his coffee.**

"Nailing the ass _in_ the ass...nice!" Jaune agreed.

 **While everyone around him had reacted in some form to Naruto's...technique, Ozpin stood as calmly and stoically as was his norm. There was not even so much as a raise in either of his eyebrows. The silver haired headmaster had taken Naruto's finisher as seriously as any other move he had seen.**

"...Ok...now I wanna hear the kinds of crazy stuff Ozpinn's seen to where he doesn't react to that!" Yang said.

 **And Glynda was surprised by this. Taking a minute to think about it though, she really shouldn't be all that surprised by Ozpin's acceptance of the situation. He had always taken even the most out of the ordinary situations in stride. It was what had made him such a fierce and powerful Huntsmen and the reason he was trusted to run Beacon in the first place.**

The members of the two Remnent teams hummed thoughtfully, storing that away as something they would need to keep in mind to become successful Hunters and Huntresses.

 **As Cardin lay in the appropriately named "Face down, ass up" position, unconscious from either shame or pain, Professor Port coughed into his hand, "Uh...yes...well, the victor of this match is Naruto Uzumaki!"**

"No kidding!" Yang smirked "Foxy...I knew I was gonna like you!"

 **Those who had recovered from their bout of laughter cheered, while those who hadn't, attempted to cheer as well, but only ended up choking in the process.**

 **The medics soon arrived to cart Cardin away, none of them too eager to treat such an odd case.**

"Don't blame them." Blake snickered.

 **How exactly did one go about healing an injury to the anus anyways?**

"Best left unsaid." Ren said.

* * *

 **The days after the "fight" between Naruto and Cardin had seen a return to the somewhat normal. Team NNPR was back to taking care of their classes and training when their schedules allowed them the time and Naruto had become somewhat of a feared opponent in the battle classes.**

Everyone snickered at that.

 **Of course he was only one among a few others who had earned the top spots. In fact both teams RWBY and NNPR had become known for their above average prowess on the battlefield and many of their fellow freshman class dreaded being pitted against any of the members from either team.**

"Oh yeah! We bad!" Yang cheered as her teammates all looked pleased by this.

 **As for Cardin, well he wasn't seen for two days and when he finally did start going back to class, nobody, not even some of the Professors, could look at the leader of team CRDL without chuckling. It didn't help that he had to sit on a specially shaped pillow so as to avoid causing pain to his injured backside.**

The present readers all laughed at that.

 **Naruto had also been sought out by team CFVY, something which his friends were curious about.**

"Not really, you defended their friend and teammate, then made a show of publicly humiliating the one who did it. Can understand that." Blake smiled.

 **Of course that curiosity stemmed from the interactions between their blond friend and the brazen leader of CFVY. The older teen seemed to have no qualms with openly flirting with and teasing Naruto,**

"...Ok, I stand corrected." Blake blinked at that.

 **something which seemed to bother Pyrrha, Blake, and Yang.**

"...Say what?!" Blake and Pyrrha both yelped.

 **Of course Pyrrha's reason for being bothered by Naruto's relationship with the older female was, while unknown to her, obvious to most others. Nobody knew why Blake seemed to not like the team leader of CFVY and she didn't know why either.**

Everyone turned to the two girls in question.

"Shame on the both of you! Shame, shame, shame! Yang said, frowning.

 **Yang however openly admitted that she didn't like the older girl, because she felt that only she should be able to flirt with and tease her fellow blond.**

Ruby moaned. Her new friend had been marked! This was horrible! Worst of all was Ruby couldn't save Naruto!

 **This seemed to be more of a case of two such bold and strong personalities butting heads.**

 **Naruto, being the still somewhat oblivious blond he was,**

"Hey!" Naruto snapped.

 **didn't pick up on any of this and happily made friends with team CFVY which lead to him actually learning their names.**

 **The girl he had previously likened to Anko, he found, was Coco, a name he found aptly fit her. The bunny eared Faunus he had defended before was named Velvet Scarlatina. The two silent male teammates were Fox,**

"You're joking!" Naruto gawked.

 **the skinnier red haired one which Naruto and Kurama had a good laugh at**

"That would be funny to me and Kurama." Naruto admitted with a snicker at the irony.

 **, and Yatsuhashi.**

 **Thanks to his befriending the elder team, Naruto was able to learn a little bit more about how Beacon functioned and prepared their students for the field. Sadly first year students were restricted from taking part in missions, which brought Naruto to tears.**

"Hate that! Especially with how different training in controlled envormets I than actually being out in the feild." Naruto moaned.

Everyone else looked at him in surprise, then all nodded. That was indeed true.

 **On the other hand he was happy to find out that the lowest missions they could take were assisting the local police force, a far cry from the D rank missions he had done with his Genin team.**

"Phew...that's good news, at least." Naruto muttered, relieved.

"Basically doing chores for civillians...yard work, babysitting, litter pick-up, pet handeling...things like that." Minato explained.

The Remnent natives all looked at one another, imagining all the time and effort they put into developing their abilities as Hunters and Huntress, only to be stuck with a so-called "mission" like that...

"HATE 'EM!" RWBY and JNPR all cried.

 **However the level of missions they could take depended on their performance in their first year, at the end of which they would receive a rank as an individual and as a team.**

 **In Naruto's mind all this amounted to was, "First year is going to be boring."**

 **Seeing the mopey look on Naruto's whiskered face, Velvet felt bad and revealed to him a little known fact that not many students used, they were free to leave Beacon's grounds as long as they were either done with their classes or had none.**

"Thank you, Velvet!" Naruto cheered.

 **The blond jinchuuriki was quick to exploit this and had boarded one of the various transport ships that ferried students between Vale and Beacon. He had tried to convince the others to tag along, but they all had work to do for one class or another. Of course he had already finished his work thanks to a certain jutsu of his.**

 **And so we find our whiskered protagonist strolling through the streets of Vale's market district with Kurama wrapped around his neck.**

 **"How does his place not have any damn ramen stands!?" Naruto cried to the heavens.**

Naruto went pale at that.

 **Beacon's ramen was, while not the best he had ever had, decent, but he figured that an actual ramen stand would have a far better tasting menu seeing as how they made it from scratch.**

The Remnent teens shared a confused look. People actually made ramen from scratch?

 ** _'Seventeen years together and I still don't understand how you can eat so much of that slop,_ ' Kurama commented.**

 **Glaring heatedly at his furry companion Naruto retorted, _'It is the food of the Kami and you will show it the respect it deserves!'_**

"What is it with you and that stuff, anyway?" Jaune asked.

 **Putting paw to snout the chibi-fied Kyuubi sighed, _'Were it not for me and your Uzumaki blood you would have probably died from a blood clot with how you inhale the stuff. Even worse if not for that big chested woman you call a Godmother you would have stayed a midget for the rest of your life.'_**

"Again, mirroring one of Ruby's problems! Only with her, it's sweets rather than ramen!" Yang sinckered.

"YANG!" Ruby cried in outrage.

 **Naruto seemingly ignored his Bijuu and instead pondered on something else, _'Hmm, death by ramen...yup, definitely how I want to go out.'_**

 ** _'My hatred of you and your family knows no bounds.'_**

 ** _'Love ya too buddy.'_**

 ** _'Kurama?'_**

 ** _'Why can't you leave me in peace?'_**

 ** _'When did we end up in Vale's red light district?'_**

 ** _'Probably around the time I was contemplating strangling you with my tails.'_**

 ** _'So, what, five minutes or so ago?'_**

 ** _'Roughly.'_**

"I find it disturbing how casual you and Kurama are about that." Jaune said.

 **Naruto stared in mild curiosity as he looked upon what had to be one of the nicest looking clubs he had seen in a red light district, and he had been in a lot of red light districts, more than any seventeen year old had any business in visiting. Albeit most of the time it was, because he had to drag Jiraiya's shit faced butt out of some brothel or strip joint.**

Naruto and Minato both moaned at the memories of habing to do that.

 **How that pervert of a man had managed to train both Naruto and his father into respectably strong and capable shinobi was a wonder in and of of itself.**

The father and son both nodded while rubbing their temples at that.

 **Back to the matter at hand, Naruto was wondering if Vale's police force were either that terrible or the owner had deep enough pockets to pay off some higher ups. The place almost literally screamed, "Many illegal things go on inside me!"**

"Hey! That's Junior's place!" Yang laughed. Oh...this'd be good!

 **Shrugging Naruto decided that if he couldn't get his hands on any ramen he might as well enjoy some saki. Thanks to the gift/curse of being both a Jinchuuriki and an Uzumaki, Naruto lacked the ability to get drunk. His body naturally purged itself of anything it considered toxic or poisonous before it could take affect, so the only way to possible get him drunk was to either seal off his link to Kurama or guzzle enough hard liquor to kill several dozen fully grown men.**

"Naruto...!" Mikoto said, shocked as she stopped reading to look at him. Sake! Seriously?! Idily, she also noticed it was mispelled in the book, being spelled S-a-k-e in actuality, but that wasn't important to the fact that her best friend's child was ordering the alcoholic rice wine made by fermenting rice that had been polished to remove the bran.

"One, I can't get drunk, two, I was in the Fourth Ninja War. Three, alternate self."

"Fourth Ninja...?!" Mikoto sputtered.

"Everyone in the world against Madara's ideals and legacy..." the blond Uzumaki explained shortly.

Mikoto went pale at that. Ok...so he was allowed to try and drink to forget. Madara had been completely insane.

 **Waltzing into the rather large club, Naruto raised an eyebrow at the DJ who had a bear head on as he blasted some tune or another. The blond had never really invested too much interest in music and so he cared little for it and saw it as nothing but background noise.**

 **Stepping up to the bar portion of the club, Naruto noticed the odd looks he was getting from the employees, no doubt due to his age. Of course he shrugged them off with ease. Most of the shinobi villages operated on the "Old enough to kill, old enough to drink" policy which meant as soon as you got a headband you were by all rights a legal adult in the eyes of the village.**

"Sweet!" Yang smirked. Not the killing part, but being allowed into places like that regardless of actual age.

 **Regardless of his age though, the bartender strode over to him and asked, "What can I get ya?"**

 **"Chilled saki, please," Naruto replied.**

 **Nodding the bartender wandered off to retrieve said drink and the saucers needed, leaving Naruto and who the blond assumed to be either the manager or owner of the club judging by how the various employees looked to him for orders and such.**

 **"Aren't you a little too young to be hanging out in a place like this, kid?" The well dressed man asked.**

 **Naruto turned his head slightly and shrugged, "I'm a paying customer, so does it really matter?"**

 **The older male grinned, "Haha good point, kid. Just don't expect any special treatment here."**

"One of those all-money/no-morals types I see." Mikoto paused, pursing her lips. As the Uchiha had been in charge of the police, she'd gotten good at recognizing the profiles of those who cimmitted illigal activities, especally since the last police cheif they'd had was who she'd been married to.

Weiss shifted in her seat, that line about the type that cared only for money and had no sense of morality reminded her of her father.

 **That said the man walked off to do whatever he needed to, leaving Naruto alone. Seeing as how his drink still hadn't arrived, the blond took the time to survey the crowd of people. The dance floor was surprisingly packed, a writhing mass of bodies moving in time with the pulsing beat of the music while the lights performed their own number.**

 **Naruto was none too surprised to see some rather wealthy looking people mixed in among those who made their living through underhanded means. All too often those with too much money liked to think that said funds made them more protected and so they felt more daring, wanting to see the "fringes of society" as it were.**

Weiss flinched at that.

 **What did catch his eye were too outlandishly dressed twins who looked to be about his age. One of the twin girls was dressed in a mostly red lolita themed outfit with her counterpart in an all white version of the dress.**

"Those two?!" Yang growled, recalling Junor's real muscle.

 **The two drew attention mostly because of how far removed they looked. They didn't look to be in the club as patrons, nor did they look to be employees as they were in their own little section of the club. If Naruto had to guess they either worked directly for the club owner, or this place catered to certain people's "needs" and the girls were the ones responsible for entertaining those guests.**

 **Naruto was more inclined to believe the former seeing the weapons they had hidden on them and the amount of Aura he could feel from them. Hell one of them alone had more than the guy who had just talked to them. No doubt they made a deadly pair.**

Minato narrowed his eyes at that. What really caught his attention was the alternate of his son saying he could sense aura comming off of the two. That seemed important for some reasin. As a sage, able to detect chakra, but he could sense the energies of people from Remnent, too...he had a feeling that would be revisited later in some way or another.

 **Seeing the bartender finally come back with a bucket and a saucer, Naruto shrugged off those thoughts and decided to indulge himself. Just because he couldn't get drunk, didn't mean he didn't enjoy the taste and feel of alcoholic drinks.**

 **Right as the saucer hit his lips, Kurama spoke through their mental link, _'Kit, incoming. Two heavily negative presences are about to walk in and one feels eerily similar to that snake Orochimaru.'_**

Naruto, Minato, and Mikoto all looked shocked and uneasy at that.

 **It was times like these that Naruto both hated and was grateful for Kurama's Negative Emotion Sensing ability. It had saved their skin several times and it was also nice to figure out who were the "bad guys" so to speak.**

"That sounds so cool!" Ruby said with stars in her eyes.

"Certainly sounds useful..." Weiss agreed with her team leader.

 **On the other hand it was usually only triggered at times like this, when Naruto really didn't want to get involved with something.**

 **The fact that one of the people was apparently so full of negativity that Kurama had compared them to one of the most vile humans they ever had the displeasure of meeting was terrible icing on an already terrible cake.**

"Just how bad is this guy, then?" Nora asked.

Naruto grimaced..

 ** _'Why do I have the feeling that one way or another, I'm going to end up fighting one of them right now?'_ Naruto grumbled.**

 ** _'Because you and Lady Luck have a love/hate relationship,'_ Kurama replied back with a grin.**

 **Walking in through the doors was a rather effeminate looking man who wore a bowler hat over his deep orange hair. He walked with a cane that looked like it was more for show than anything. The smirk on his face made Naruto's skin crawl and the way he held himself just screamed egomaniac.**

"That's Roman Torchwick!" Ruby exclaimed. She hated that guy!

 **Walking next to him was a petite girl with half her hair a bright pink and the other half a light brown. She carried an umbrella with her and bore an odd smile that normally would have made her look all the more cuter, but for some reason put Naruto on edge. Either she wasn't right in the head or she knew exactly what she was doing to get such a reaction.**

Yang glared, eyes going red at the sight of the girl who beat her senesless on the train during the Breach. Damn twirp hadn't gotten a single hit of her while she'd used Yang to smile the walls, floor, and celing of that train car!

 **Strutting in behind the man and his companion was a woman in high heels and a maroon colored dress with gold accents. In other circumstances Naruto would have admitted that she was a beauty with her raven locks and searing gaze. Shoot despite her petite figure, Naruto had no doubt that Jiraiya would have been all over her in seconds, rest his perverted soul.**

"May he rot in hell, amen." Weiss prayed along with the other girls. Naruto didn't look at all annoyed by the views on his late godfather. The girls, being females, had the right to hate perverts. And there was nobody more perverted then Jiraiya.

 **However right now he didn't see her as a random woman walking into a bar looking for a good time. No he saw her as a potential enemy and seeing the way she carried herself, rightfully so. This was a woman who had power in spades and knew how to use it. She was trained, she was powerful, she was deadly, and she knew it.**

Ruby frowned. Why did that lady in red look familiar...?

 **In a boisterous voice that just made Naruto want to smash his fist into his face, the effeminate man spoke aloud, "Jr.** **!**

"Hmm...that's annoying, its abriviated." Mikoto frowned.

 **I knew you would do anything for money, but allowing a minor to sit at your bar and drink? How sad to see how corrupt our world has become to allow such a thing."**

 **The now named Jr., the guy who had spoken to Naruto beforehand, seemed as equally put off by the man as Naruto, "Torchwick. Getting that kind of talk from you of all people doesn't have the same effect."**

"I take it these two are friwnds..." Minato said, fists clenching and eyes narrowed.

Yang blinked at that. "Hang on… Don't tell me that… There's no way…"

"What are you going on about, now?" Weiss asked with a raised brow.

"Before I came to Beacon, I went to see Junior to ask him a few questions. I'm not sure if it was Roman, but he might've been leaving as I showed up to that club!"

"WHAT?!" The cry of the two teams rang out at that.

"Gonna need to watch Junior and his place of business then..." Ren said.

 **Hearing the name of the girly man,**

Hearing Naruto considered someone as bad as Torchwick girly, RWBY and JNPR couldn't help but laugh.

 **Naruto tensed and narrowed his eyes. He had heard the name on various news stations. Wanted for several robberies and a whole lot of other less than legal stuff, the guy was on top of Vale's most wanted list.**

Ruby nodded, recalling the robbery of the Dust shop she'd stopped that lead to her meeting Ozpin and Goodwitch for the first time.

 **"Oh come now Jr., my old friend! You say that like I'm some low life criminal or something. You and I both know I'm more into high crimes and enjoying the finer things in life," Torchwick replied with that same sickening grin.**

"Well, that answers that...those two are friends. And I'm already looking forward to punching that guy's teeth down his throat." Naruto said, glaring at Totchwick's image on screen.

 **Waving off the eccentric man and no doubt wanting to get rid of him as fast as possible, Jr. spoke, "Whatever. What do you want this time, Torchwick?"**

 **Torchwick seemed ready to reply with another "witty" remark, but was cut off by the woman who stood next to him, "Enough Torchwick. Get what we came for aSenju's nd let's go."**

 **Clearly upset at being cut off, Torchwick grumbled to himself, "Alright alright, geez. You heard the boss lady. The usual."**

 **Jr. shrugged, "Fine. Fifty men it is. You know the fee."**

 **Eyes turning to Naruto, Torchwick smirked and made his way over to the bar, slinging am arm around Naruto's shoulders,**

Naruto clenched the fist of his bandaged, "white Zetsu arm" created from Hashirama's cells and made a fist. "Is it wrong I wanna tear that arm off?" he asked.

"Seeing as it's Torchwick...no." Weiss scowled.

 **"How 'bout you huh? Looking for some work? It pays good money."**

 **It was only thanks to Torchwick's experience and the pronounced growling that he was able to move away from Naruto fast enough to avoid becoming Kurama's chew toy.**

"Dammit!" Naruto and the Remnent teens cursed.

 **Suffice to say he and the others who were watching in interest were shocked to see what they had thought to be a scarf turn out to actually be a living breathing creature, a fox no less.**

 **It was clearly evident though that the fox was not happy with Torchwick touching Naruto, showing by its displeasure with the man by glaring heatedly at him and snarling loud enough to be heard over the music.**

 **The blond seemed unaffected by his fox attacking Torchwick, taking another sip of his saki before speaking, "Sorry buddy, not interested. Besides, I don't swing that way."**

Everyone laughed at that!

"Foxy...you sir, very much rule!" Yang hooted.

 **Jr. laughed at the thinly veiled jab at Torchwick's sexuality, and it seemed even the man's boss or accomplice found it funny if her smirk was anything to go by.**

 **Torchwick huffed and adjusted his head, "I'd get a muzzle for that thing kid before it bites the wrong person and gets you into a lot of trouble."**

 **Naruto grinned and turned around to fully face Torchwick, "I wouldn't worry about it too much. Kurama knows how to tell slimeballs like you apart from everyone else."**

 **The wanted man was now clearly growing tired of the blond's less than subtle jabs at him, "I'd watch it kid, you're messing with the wrong person."**

Naruto tsked with a smirk, throughly amused. "Is he kidding me with that? Please! I've faced WAY worse than some two-bit crook like him!"

 **As Naruto stated down Torchwick with the utmost confidence, the DJ seemed to have an excellent sense of timing and changed up the song choice.**

"Battle themeing...nice." Yang and Nora both nodded.

 **Snapping his fingers, Torchwick huffed, "Neo! Handle this kid."**

"Grow some balls and fight your own battles, Torch-prick!" Naruto snapped, he hated those types.

"Nice one! Gotta remember that!" the members of team RWBY all snickered. Seeing as they kept running into and clashing with the bowler hat man, it was a good insullt.

 **The umbrella toting girl smiled and nodded, not once making any sound. Turning she winked at Naruto before bowing at the waist and taking an oddly relaxed stance with her umbrella laying against her shoulder.**

 **Standing across from her, Naruto reached to his side and grabbed the scroll that housed Hi no Ishi, and with a quick swipe of a bloodied digit, the shakujo was held in his right hand, garnering many raised eyebrows at the odd sight of not just the weapon, but the means of retrieving it as well.**

 **"Great, you're one of those silent types, always so annoying to fight," Naruto commented with a grin.**

"Nothing wrong with witty banter in a fight." Naruto shrugged with a smirk, the Remnent group nodding in agreement.

 **He had been looking for a good fight, and while fighting his teammates was fun, he couldn't really unwind for fear of revealing something or hurting them in some way. Here, where no one knew him and where he had no qualms about causing collateral damage, he could finally let loose a bit.**

"Oh god...he's just like Yang!" Ruby moaned.

"Actually, Kushina was that way all the time. Her way of viewing things was, if you didn't want to get hit, you wouldn't be near a fight. No regard for crossfire or collateral damage. Especially when she was mad." Mikoto supplied, amused.

Yang gaped. Hot damn! Kushina was looking more and more like the most awesome role model ever in the blond brawler's eyes! Nice!

 **It also helped that most of the club's patrons had long since left out of fear, something Jr. didn't look too happy about.**

 ** _'Been awhile since we let loose eh, Kit? Show that buffoon who he's messing with!_ ' Kurama said with a grin stretching across his face.**

 ** _'I swear I was never this battle hungry,'_ Naruto commented.**

 ** _'You're an Uzumaki and my Jinchuuriki. You live for this!'_**

 **Twirling his shakujo Naruto grinned, "Let's see if I still got it."**

"Round one...Fight!" Jaune cried.

 **The music paused at the right time, Naruto tensing and his short opponent staring him down with that same smile.**

 **The music surged back to life, hitting like a wall of sound and in that same instance Naruto was gone from sight, surprising everyone with how fast he had moved.**

 **The diminutive girl was only barely able to bring her umbrella up, blocking Naruto's swing of his shakujo. Spinning her umbrella, Neo attempted to knock the staff out of the blond's hands, only to get a stomach full of Naruto's foot, sending her skidding backwards and onto the dance floor.**

"Good kick." Ren commented.

 **Frowning, Neo blinked, changing her eye color at the same time, something which Naruto found only slightly odd.**

Mikoto looked interested in hearing that. So that Neo girl had the ability to shift thecolor of her eyes simililar to her clan's use of the sharingan...?

 **Shrugging the blond Jinchuuriki sped off towards Neo, only to have his horizontal swipe blocked by the shorter girl's oddly sturdy umbrella.**

"Most likely a staff sword-type weapon, too..." Ruby frowned thoughtfully, her eyes narrowed on the silent girl's unbrella. Everyone looked at her.

"...Swear Tenten would be her best friend in less than a minute..." Naruto muttered, then his eyes lit up as he thought of something.

That idea might just work...

 **The ice cream themed girl smiled mockingly at her opponent. She was however thrown off guard though when instead of looking shocked, Naruto just grinned right back.**

 **Nodding his head behind her, Neo allowed her gaze to flicker to see what he was looking at, only to be shocked when she saw a second grinning blond rushing at her from behind.**

Blake's jaw dropped. What the?! That was like her Semblance! Naruto could replicate himself too?!

"So that's what that "many people" joke last chapter was about..." she said.

 **Taking advantage of her smaller size, Neo used her other hand to lean on Naruto's shoulder, and with a shove she back flipped over the second blond slamming her heel into its head on her way back down to the floor. Instead of the second Naruto being knocked unconscious or being sent to the floor like many expected, it went up in a poof of smoke, obscuring Neo from vision.**

"Not bad at all..." Naruto said critically of Neo's maneuver. Girl was good.

 **This seemed to play into Naruto's plan perfectly as he was quick to rush blindly into the smoke.**

 **With the white cloud still obscuring their vision, the spectators could only hear the sounds of metal hitting metal and accompanied by the occasional shadow being seen through the smoke.**

 **"Fūton: Daitoppa _(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)_!"**

 **The spectators were forced to quickly grab onto something as a mighty gale of wind suddenly swept through the club with enough force to send anything not nailed down flying.**

 **Neo, weighing very little, was hurled through the air and slammed into one of the club's walls with the heavy force of the winds keeping the diminutive girl pinned there.**

 **Naruto wasn't finished though as he flashed through a chain of unknown hand gestures so quickly that his hands looked to be little more than blurs. Landing on the last of the odd gestures, the blond inhaled deeply, "Katon: Ryūka no jutsu _(Fire Release: Dragon Flame technique)_!"**

"Naruto...you...your alternate wouldn't!" Mikoto and Minato both cried in alarm.

 **Exhaling, Naruto unleashed a stream of flames from his mouth in a manner similar to the mythic beast the technique was named for. To the spectator's further surprise, instead of what remained of the winds consuming the flames, they instead seemed to feed and give it direction, aiming the infernal stream towards the still dazed Neo.**

"Holy...!" Yang cried. That was overkill!

 **None seemed to be more intrigued by the unique attacks of the boy than the mysterious raven haired woman.**

 ** _'This boy...there's no way this could be Dust manipulation. I've never seen someone control the elements with such ease. The only answer is that this is his Semblance or he's the end result of some inhumane experiment involving Dust.'_**

"If he were from Atlas, I'd believe that second one."

"What?!" Weiss cried.

Blake shrugged "Atlas is all about military advancement. As long as they can make better weapons, they wouldn't care about crossing a few moral lines."

 **Allowing himself to relax, Naruto sighed and raked a hand through his blond locks, _'I will never enjoy killing.'_**

 ** _'Good, that means that you are still capable of emotions. When you stop feeling guilty, then that is a cause for worry,'_ Kurama spoke sagely.**

 **Grinning Naruto began to scratch behind Kurama's rabbit like ears, _'Never thought I'd hear something like that from you.'_**

"No kidding...especally considering the attack when Naruto was born...kept attacking and killing even _after_ he was freed of the mind control he was put under..." Minato muttered.

 **Despite the pleasure he felt at the scratching, the Bijuu grumbled, _'Please I am nothing like that idiot Shukaku. The only time I've ever killed en masse was when - DODGE!'_**

 ** _'Wha-'_**

 **Naruto was painfully pulled from his thoughts when he felt a foot slam into his abdomen, causing him to bend over said limb. The follow up that was just a painful, the blond getting a heel to the face which sent him sliding across the floor like a hockey puck.**

"Ow..." Naruto mutteded with a wince.

 ** _'Dumbass, that's what you get for letting your guard down.'_**

 ** _'The hell was I supposed to know she would survive a Fūton powered Ryūka to the face!?'_**

The husband as well as the best friend of Kushina both nodded. There weren't many people who could do that.

"Wait...she...I didn't...phew!" Naruto looked releved. Sure, Neo was going to be pissed, but he deserved that. He was just happy she was alive!

 ** _'You're a shinobi moron!' You're supposed to be prepared for everything!'_**

 ** _'If you hadn't noticed, THERE ARE NO OTHER SHINOBI AROUND!'_**

 ** _'Yea well if you don't get up and move, there won't be any shinobi PERIOD.'_**

 **Rolling to the side, Naruto was able to avoid being skewered by an umbrella of all things. Looking up he could see a less than pleased Neo frowning at him. The edges of her clothes were either cut up or slightly singed while her umbrella was heavily burned and looked to be on the verge of breaking.**

"Yeah...she's as pissed as I figured. Deserve it, too..." Naruto said, being lit on fire would do that to a person.

 **Standing up straight, Naruto could already feel his chakra start to repair the damage he had taken. For such a small thing, she managed to pack quite the wallop. With her first kick she had managed to bruise some of his ribs and knock them out of place while her heel kick had broken his jaw and slightly cracked his skull.**

Yang winced. No wonder the little mute had ragdolled her so easily.

 **As Naruto rubbed his sore jaw, he pondered to himself, _'Maybe I should look into that whole using your chakra/aura as a shield thing afterall.'_**

 **While Naruto dodged another kick from Neo, Kurama spoke, _'It would be pointless. Anything short of someone ripping out your heart or cutting your head off would just be healed anyways.'_**

"...Ok, that is terrifyingly specific." Weiss gapped.

 **With an outstretched hand, Naruto caught the next of Neo's kicks, keeping her literally on her toes. Shoving said limb to the side to throw her off her balance, Naruto went for a palm strike to the chest. Instead of stumbling, Neo spun and whipped up her parasol, smacking Naruto's hand away.**

 **Twirling Hi no Ishi, the blond aimed a swing at the shorter girl's legs. The staff was stopped short by Neo's umbrella. Naruto in turn aimed a punch at the shorter girl's face only to have it stopped by the diminutive girl's own hand.**

 **With both of their hands occupied the two combatants took a minute to stare the other down, cerulean orbs peering into what were now heterochromic eyes, one a dark brown and the other a light, almost white, pink.**

"Neo would make a fun sparring partner. She's good. Seriously!" Naruto smiled.

 **Naruto grinned his trademark foxy grin and Neo frowned before smiling her own odd smirk, blinking in the process which changed the colors of her eyes.**

Mikoto again took special notice of that. She wondered what the full range of colors Neo could change her eyes to was.

 **"Kurama."**

 **Neo turned wide eyes to see the vulpine grin of her opponent's fox. Opening his maw, Kurama began channeling his own chakra, creating a miniature orb of concentrated red Bijū chakra. While downright tiny when compared to the full size Kurama could use when in his true Kyuubi form, this was still the devastating trademark attack of the Nine Tailed Beasts and their Jinchuuriki, the Bijūdama _(Tailed Beast Ball)_.**

"MOVE!" Naruto yelped, terrified for any and everyone that could be caught in THAT attack!

"The attack is basically an aura nuke when its used at full power..." Minato said.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" The remnent-born half of the reading group all cried! What the hell was that fox thinking using something like THAT in a populated area!?

 **Not wanting to see what such a menacing looking attack could do, Neo acted quickly, grabbing Naruto's wrist and, leaning her weight on to her umbrella, put her feet on Naruto's abdomen, making her parallel to the ground. With a shove, Neo kicked off and sent herself shooting away from her blond opponent and his fox.**

 **Just in time as well, Kurama unleashing the pent up chakra in a single condensed ball which flew just above Neo. With the ball being no bigger than a baseball, many didn't expect much of it. Of course that notion flew out the window when the tiny ball impacted with the wall above the entrance. The doors, along with almost the entirety wall, were decimated in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a few pebbles of building materials behind as the only sign that there had once been a wall there.**

 **The sound of the explosion and the concussive blast of air that followed were just as devastating. The sound took a second to catch up and when it did, it hit as a physical force, the invisible waves hitting everyone and everything near the impact with enough force as to actually feel like a solid wall. The winds that kicked up due to the attack hit just as hard, destroying even more of the club.**

"That's the _miniture_ version?!" the two teams all cried at the destruction.

 **It was at this time that Vale's police force, no doubt backed by some Huntsmen, decided to get involved, the sounds of sirens blaring in the distance.**

 **Not wanting to deal with said law enforcement, Torchwick called out, "Neo! Time to go!"**

 **The odd girl curtsied at Naruto before running to join her already escaping accomplices.**

 **Deciding that leaving the scene would be a good idea for him as well, Naruto turned towards the gaping form of Jr., "Sorry bout the wall!"**

"Well...at least he's polite about it...?" Pyrrha said in a meek, lame tone, still stunned.

 ** _'I'm not. Been awhile since we've destroyed some stuff.'_**

 ** _'Not now Kurama.'_**

 **In a blur of speed Naruto was gone, leaping across the rooftops to distance himself from the scene of destruction.**

 **Standing alone in the midst of what had once been a well built and well kept club, Jr. could do nothing but stare in shock at what was left of his establishment.**

 **"NO MORE BLOND'S IN MY CLUB!"**

"Not my fault! I didn't start that fight!" Naruto protested.

"Unlike Yang." Ruby said. She'd heard about what had happened at Junior's place.

* * *

 **As Naruto sped across the rooftops, laughing all the way, a set of piercing amber eyes stared at his retreating form.**

 ** _'Hmm. He could be useful to me, far more useful than this buffoon Torchwick. Now to find out just who you are and what motivates you. This'll be fun.'_**

"Goodie...a target on my back again..." Naruto grumbled.

 **With a smirk the mysterious raven haired woman sauntered her way to the car that one of Torchwick's men was driving.**

 **The effeminate man himself was near grinding his teeth in anger, "Damned blond! I swear the next time I see that mug of his I'm gonna kill him myself."**

 **"No you will not."**

 **Turning to look at his "boss" Torchwick was clearly not happy about being told no, "Why not!? He could easily derail all of our plans!"**

 **In response the woman just smirked, her eyes beginning to glow, resembling fire itself, "Do not worry about him Torchwick. I will personally...handle the situation."**

"I don't like the sound of that..." Naruto muttered.

 **The crime boss huffed before pulling out a cigar and lighting it, "Driver, get us back to base."**

* * *

 ** _'Kurama, you know what I forgot to do?'_ Naruto thought as he sat on the ship back to Beacon.**

 **Stirring from his "nap", Kurama replied, _'Actually kill the creep who will no doubt be a source of problems for us later on?'_**

 **Stroking his chin in thought, the blond shook his head, _'Well yeah that, but something even more important than that!'_**

 ** _'Oh kami don't-'_**

 ** _'Ramen!'_**

"Are you serious?" Weiss asked him.

Naruto shrugged "Not my fauit combat can get you hungry and tired."

 ** _'...kit.'_**

 ** _'Yeah?'_**

 ** _'I loathe you.'_**

 ** _'Love you too Kurama, love you too.'_**

"Well...that settles that. Come on...let's see about gathering up whatever's left of Kakashi by now." Mikoto said, closing the book.


	8. Chapter 8

AUTHOR NOTE: To all those who enjoy and supported this story, thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I promise you in the face of your support, I will never stop this story until it's completed! ^_^

* * *

As Kushina admired her current "handiwork", a series of knocks at her door drew her attention.

"What is it? I'm in the middle of something important!" Kushina's voice called, a cry for help exiting Kakashi a moment later.

"Kushina...I know you want to beat Kakashi to an inch of his life and then burn him alive on a piler of his own Icha-Icha books, but we're starting the next chapter. Jaune's reading." Mikoto called.

"Fine." Kushina opened the door, dragging a very bloody Kakashi behind her as she made her way into the main room and plopped the injured man on the coutch.

 **There were many ways Naruto could imagine spending his Saturday morning - training with his team, sleeping, eating, pulling a prank on Cardin, or possibly getting in trouble for the stunt he had pulled the night before at Jr.'s club. Oddly enough, he wasn't currently doing any of those things. Even more strange was the fact that Professor Ozpin seemed to know that the young blond was involved with the incident in Vale and yet was content to not ask any questions despite the many inquisitive stares he had gotten from the headmaster of Beacon.**

"You blow up half a building and get away with it?" Yang gaped, then her and Nora both pouted at Naruto.

"LUCKY!" They complained.

 **If our protagonist was not taking part in any of the aforementioned activities, then what exactly was he doing you ask?**

"Seeing as it's Naruto we're talking about, that's actually a good question." Minato confessed, getting his son to pout and glare at him.

 **Enjoying a soothing cup of tea at a café in Vale's market district. With the sun barely having risen above the horizon a few short hours ago it was still relatively cool, a gentle breeze carrying a morning chill to balance out the heat that radiated off the gaseous ball of flames in the sky.**

"That actually sounds relaxing." Kushina smiled.

 **Seated on the second floor balcony of the rather well furnished eatery, Naruto allowed himself to relax into his chair, feeling the caress of the wind as it gently swayed his blond mop of hair. As he did so, his cerulean orbs traveled to the young female who was actually the reason for his even being there in the first place.**

"OH~HOOO~! Do tell!" Yang cheered eagerly.

Naruto somehow blushed and paled simultaneously, especally when he noticed his mom had a very similar look to Yang's on her face at that.

 **Sitting across from the shinobi in hiding was a pale skinned raven haired beauty.**

"Huh?!" Everyone cried, Blake suddenly having a very bad feeling of foreboading in her gut.

 **Dressed in her usual garb of purple/black stockings, white undershirt, black top,** **and her signature bow, Blake Belladon**

"HELLO~!" Yang called, then shot her partner a face-splitting grin. Oh...this was just TOO RITCH!

Blake looked horrified at that bad feeling proving true. Why?! Why was this happening to her..?!

 **a took a sip of her tea, looking just as relaxed as her male friend.**

 **Many would be surprised to hear that it had actually been the young woman who had asked Naruto to accompany her to a café, knowing that the normally soft spoken and monotone member of team RWBY preferred her privacy and space away from most others.**

"...That would be surprising, I admit." Blake relented.

 **While it was true that she had begun to open up when around her teammates, even they knew that their friend and teammate had her limits and would actively seek time away from them when she reached said limit of social interaction.**

 **The fact that she had asked Naruto, whom many knew to be loud, brash, and by all rights the opposite of Blake, was also odd and somewhat out of the norm for the raven haired teen. Even the leader of team NNPR was surprised when Blake sought him out and asked him to go with her on what amounted to a date in the eyes of most others.**

"Shoot me. Someone shoot me...please!" Blake hissed in a low voice, her face reddening.

 **Of course Naruto was far from being like most people and being as romantically dense as he was, saw it as a friend asking another friend to hang out, nevermind the fact that she had asked just him and him alone to go with her.**

"Dense? Why? Its probably just that." Blake said.

"Sure~" Yang teased.

"Need I remind you about the reasons I kept my being a Faunus and my past hidden?!" The feline girl snapped with more bite than she intended. Then she winced a second later. "Sorry..."

"...Hey, its cool. Touchy subjects, is all." the blond told her partner, ok...Yang admitted she enjoyed teasing, but she did know where to draw the line, and she was getting a bit close to it. Needed to watch that.

 **And so a short airship ride, a walk, and some small talk later they had found themselves quickly seated by the elderly lady who owned the café. The young Uzumaki had been confused when said owner had winked at Blake and said, "Opposites attract don't they?"**

At that, everyone else looked at Naruto, then at Blake.

"Not to offend, but I can see the part about you two being opposites considering your personalities." Weiss said.

 **While the meaning was lost on our blond hero, Blake was quick to understand the elderly woman's hinting and quickly attempted to hide the blush that was blossoming on her cheeks. This also happened to be the reason that the young woman had refused to make eye contact for the past few minutes which had eventually led to there being a thick tension between the two teens, though Naruto had no idea why.**

The fenales with the exception of Ruby all sighed "...Clueless..."

 **"We really should have left a note for the others," came Naruto's voice in an attempt to break the tension.**

 **Blake replied in her usual monotone, "They'll be fine."**

 **"Uh, you do know who you're talking about right? Yang? Nora?" Naruto chuckled.**

 **After a moment of thought and her mind conjuring the mental image of a panicked Yang and Nora literally turning Beacon upside down in search of them while Ruby and Ren tried in vain to stop the two, the ravenette put palm to face before muttering, "They're gonna burn the school down."**

Ruby and Ren looked ready to cry in sheer misery while the others paled, easily seeing Yang and Nora doing that!

 **"The possibility of us returning to a ruined school aside, how come you asked me to come here? I never really took you as someone who would go out of her way to do something like this," the half blood Uzumaki asked.**

 ** _'How the student of not one, but two perverts, one a self proclaimed Super Pervert, is this dense when it comes to females is just baffling._**

"Personally, I find it relieving. Means he wasn't corrupted." Weiss said, getting nods of agreement from thr other females present. Kushina especially.

 ** _If Jiraiya hadn't tricked you into losing your virginty, I'd swear you didn't know what sex is and how it works,'_ Kurama grumbled through their link.**

"HE DID WHAT?!" Kushina roared, bolting to her feet and hauling Naruto by the arm. He gulped nerviously as his mother started demanding answers.

Minato sighed and shook his head. Figures Jiraiya would do something like that...not that Minato wasn't as pissed about this bit of news as his wife, he was. But he was the least shocked by it.

Ruby blushed heavily and said nothing.

Weiss gapesd in shock that this "Jiraiya" would do something like that.

Blake, knowing Naruto was a ninja, had that lead her to think about "Ninjas of love", a bit of blood leaking from her nose.

Yang cried in laughter.

Pyrrha blushed and shook her head saying something about "Bad role models".

Jaune looked at his fellow male blond in shock.

Nora giggled about the whole thing.

Ren sighed and shook his head.

Mikoto massaged her forehead.

Kakashi just felt happy that he was no longer the one Kushina was pissed at.

"Mom...it was the me in the story!"

"He's still do that if he could have gotten away with it!"

"Why do you think I wore a chastity device the entire time he was training me?" Naruto pointed out.

"You what?!"" Kushina yelped.

"He took steps to keep Jiraiya from tainting him." Minato explained, making Kushina sigh, relieved, then sat back down and relax.

 **The shrunken Bijū had been content to enjoy the rare time of silence and peace that his partner's cat friend had brought with her, but having Naruto as a container made it very hard to stay quiet. Especially when said blond was being his usual idiotic self.**

 **Without even batting an eyelash Naruto grabbed Kurama by the scruff the neck and tossed the cursing kitsune into the distance, much to the shock of his friend as well as the other patrons who were seated around them.**

"Isn't that animal abuse?" Jaune asked as he paused in his reading.

 **Seeing Blake looking at him like he had just grown a second head, the blond shinobi waved his hands uncaringly, "Don't worry he'll be fine. Furball will just make his way back over here and try and get me back or something."**

"Like what?" Pyrrha asked him.

 ** _'I AM GOING TO FUCKING MURDER YOU, YOU BLOND BASTARD!'_**

"Like that." Naruto shrugged.

"...How and why are you so calm about that?" Ren asked, understanding the irony of his saying that.

"Eh...high-risk occupation has a way of making you use to others wanting to kill you, human or otherwise."

"That's not healthy." The pink-streaked boy said.

"So says the Huntsmen-in-training." Naruto said, not missing a beat.

"Touché." Ren aknowlaged, resigning himself to that point.

 **Deciding to not question the oddity that was the relationship between her friend and his fox partner, the young Faunus decided to answer the previous question, "I...need your advice."**

 **Naruto was slightly surprised to hear Blake's normally even toned voice soften, her usually stoic face becoming downcast while her honey colored eyes became a sea of warring emotions. This threw the teen male for a loop for a moment. It was a strange sight to see the always calm and in control cat Faunus almost fall apart. Whatever was bothering her was not just troubling her, it was almost tearing her apart.**

Blake winced. Oh...she knew where this was going.

 **Then again as a Jinchūriki, Naruto was no stranger to knowing that many people walked around wearing a mask, a facade to cover up the inner turmoil that was kept bottled inside and away from public eye. Shoot he was practically the poster child for that.**

Kushina galred at her husband at that while Minato cringed.

 **He had worn a mask for so long and played it off so well that he had to literally fight himself in order to fully realize who he was entirely, both the good and the bad.**

"Say wha...?"

Naruto shuddered. "Personified manifestation of all my suppressed negitive feelings. Buried them down so far in my mind, I didn't even know they were there until then."

 **Coming back to the present, the blond thought about the situation and instantly knew that there was only one thing that could be so consequential that it was causing someone so strong willed to act and look the way the young woman in front of him was, "Blake, don't doubt your teammates. They won't care that you're a Faunus. They may be a little hurt that you kept it from them for so long, but that will pass. Ruby, Yang, and even Weiss are far better people than that."**

The trio of mentioned girls all smiled and nodded. Both at the praise of their character and to how Blake's being a Faunus didn't matter to them.

 **Taking a breath to steady herself and strengthen her resolve, Blake shook her head, "It's not just that. I know they wouldn't care about that, but...I...Naruto, I used to be a part of the White Fang."**

"Oh..." Yang shifted. So this wasn't a date, she was just turning to Naruto for advice and someone to talk to in regards to her past and some of the things Blake had kept secret.

Weiss looked guilty, recalling the day-long argument that had lead to Blake leaving.

"Take it you have your reasons?" Mikoto asked.

Blake nodded, "I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it...Back then, things were different. The White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus. Of course, despite being promised equality, the Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. And so, the White Fang rose up as the voice of our people. And I was there...I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist...Then our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking. Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear."

Blake sighed before taking a deep breath, "So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence, and instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am: a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow."

The Uchiha woman frowned at that. Seeing as the Uchiha had been police, Mikoto knew a guilty party, and the difference between an unwilling or an unwitting one and those that acted with deliberate ill intent. "...You're no criminal, you just stuck with how you were brought up and had a hard time seeing why the regime change got results. You were impressionable and saw only it got "good" results, wasn't until later that you realized the methods were bad and decided to try making things right."

"I still feel guilty, though..." the black cat sighed.

 **Surprisingly, the blond Uzumaki was quick to respond, "Why'd you leave?"**

 **Shocked at how quick her friend had responded and no doubt having thought that there would be more stunned silence on Naruto's end, Blake inquired, "What do you mean? Don't you care why I joined? What I-"**

 **Cutting the cat girl off, Naruto shook his head, "Not important right now. Why did you leave?"**

 **Looking down at her cup of tea, Blake began rubbing her arm as she remembered the day she had left the Faunus group, "I didn't want to use my skills for such a...disgusting cause. The White Fang used to be a group that strived for Faunus equality, but somewhere along the line that goal was twisted into something unrecognizable. When we started killing innocent people...I just couldn't do it anymore. It wasn't about equality anymore, it was about revenge at any price, even if that price was the lives of good innocent people."**

Blake shuddered. Those memories still bothered her.

 **Tensing herself, the young woman prepared herself for the rejection, the accusations. Naruto had more than made it clear how he felt about the White Fang in its current form and he would no doubt be disgusted to know that she had once upon a time been a part of that, assisting in the horrendous crimes that had been committed in the name of "equality". And she wouldn't blame him for that. She was guilty of it all, she was a criminal who had attempted to run away, to start a new life away from all of that, even going so far as to register for Beacon in some vain attempt at redeeming herself.**

 ** _'Who was I kidding? Life isn't a fairy tale, there is no redemption for someone like me,'_ Blake berated herself.**

Naruto frowned at that. He believed in redemption. It was why he didn't give up on Sasuke, after all.

 **"Ok then."**

"HUH?!" Everyone except Naruto cried at that, Blake notably and understandably the loudest and most shocked.

 **Wide eyed, the now revealed former member of the White Fang stared as her blond companion relaxed into his chair, crossing his arms behind his head in an uncaring manner, seemingly unfazed by what most would consider to be a huge revelation.**

 **"Wh-what do you mean 'Ok then'?" Questioned Blake.**

"Explain...PLEASE!" The female Faunus cried, shocked.

 **Naruto shrugged, "So you worked for the White Fang, so what? In the end you left, because you knew what they were doing is wrong. All this means is that you're a good person."**

"THERE! Right there! That right there! That's the only part about your past we care about! That you made that choice and want to do the right thing, Blake! That's the part that matters to us!" Ruby said, standing and pointing. The sheer passion in her voice had the others in the room staring, but Naruto offered a nod and a silent applause at how strongly Ruby supported Blake's sense of morality.

Blake felt her eyes sting at Ruby's words.

 **For a moment, Blake was at a loss for what to say and could only stare in shock as the blond captain of team NNPR sat across from her with a small grin on his face.**

 **Slowly a smile formed on her pale face as she softly chuckled at the absurdity of it all. The almost stupidly simple logic Naruto had used to explain why he was wholly unfazed by the news that one of his friends had been apart of what amounted to a terrorist group was just that, stupidly simple. It was almost childlike, and if Blake didn't know any better, she would have called the blond naive.**

"It's like Ruby's idea of logic, then." Yang smirked.

"We'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much!" Ruby and Naruto said in unison in their own defense.

 **For the first time in a while, the young Faunus allowed herself to relax completely, to let down the walls she had raised in order to keep herself safe from those around her. It was...refreshing, to not constantly fear or worry over what people thought of you or how'd they react if they found out you were "different". The feeling that she could just be Blake Belladonna, the teenage girl - who just so happened to have cat ears and be going to school to become a Huntress - was something she hadn't felt since she was little, far before she knew about or could even really understand the horrendous gap between Faunus and human.**

Blake sighed blissfully, her whole body relaxing as if she was just released from an iron straightjacket. She turned to Naruto and smiled. That...that truely was a blessing. She could feel how much her other self rejoiced at hearing that.

That settled it, he was getting taken home with her, even if she had to cram him into a sack and haul him all the way to Menagerie on her back!

 **"We really should get back before Yang and Nora burn down the school or something," Naruto spoke, pullingju Blake from her thoughts.**

 **Allowing a smile of true happiness and contentment to slip across her face, the ravenette shook her head, "They'll be fine for a little longer."**

"Let me enjoy this!" Blake all but whinned. It had been so long since she'd felt that happy.

 **In return our displaced shinobi shrugged, just as content as his companion to enjoy the calm and easy going mood that was brought on by the early Saturday morning.**

 **That mood was completely destroyed when the elderly owner of the café made her way to their table and with a huge grin on her face asked, "So can I get anything else for the lovely couple?"**

Both Blake and Naruto went scarlet and started sputtering incoherently, making everyone else laugh.

 **Blake's face instantly lit up with a blush coloring her once pale cheeks while Naruto was completely caught off guard and sputtered in both shock and embarrassment, mostly because what the woman had said caused him to look at his dark haired companion in a different light. He hadn't really paid her that kind of attention, what with being around Pyrrha and Yang.**

Blake frowned at that, feeling her pride as a woman sting at it.

 **That wasn't to say Blake was any less attractive than them, but his teammate and the outspoken member of team RWBY had features that had caught his eye more, Pyrrha with her crimson locks and gentle nature, and Yang with her..."assets" and bold nature that occasionally mirrored his own brash attitude.**

Blake wrapped her arms around her bust, feeling very self-concious now.

"Foxy...you aren't the first to think that way about my body, and won't be the last!" Yang laughed.

 **Blake however was different. His red haired teammate was more of the regal and "out of your league" beaut** **y**

"Please, don't remind me..." Pyrrha winced.

 **and Yang was that "sexy and I know it" good looking.**

"Damn right I do!" The blond bombshell grinned and intertwined her hands behind her head to show off her figure.

 **The dark themed Faunus who sat in front of him was almost refined in her beauty. Being so silent and liking to keep to herself made it easy for one to simply forget how attractive she was with her porcelain skin, piercing amber eyes, and borderline sensual speaking voice.**

Blake felt her face heat at that, the former "insults" against her as a female forgiven.

 **Remembering the only other girl he had known who was also closely connected to cats, a fellow Jinchūriki at that, Naruto had to wonder, _'Why are all cat girls so hot?'_**

"...Mm, conundrum!" Yang crossed her arms as she closed her eyes in thought as she nodded with that. "Very valid question, though. Guess it's just a rule of nature." The brawler said with a smirk.

"Yang!" Blake cried.

 **The wizened woman only laughed at the looks her statement had caused, "Oh to be young again."**

* * *

 **"But what if he was kidnapped by spies!? Maybe he's being held hostage by some terrorist group for ransom! Or maybe he was called to go on an epic quest to save a far off kingdom from a fierce dragon!"**

"...Naruto, next time, PLEASE leave a note!" Ren begged in an exhausted tone.

 **"Nora...you need to stop putting so much syrup on your pancakes."**

 **"NEVER!"**

"There is no such thing as too much syrup!" Nora declaired firmily.

"So then...what's you're all-time, number one, absolute FAVORITE flavor of syrup?" Naruto asked the eccentric heavy-hitter.

Nora looked at him stunned, opened her mouth, held it, then closed it before doing it again several times. Then crossed her arms and assumped the lotous position "...Sneaky question...need to take that seriously...props for the difficulty, Mr. Orange...I'll give you that..." she said, then mentally retreated inwards to contemplate her answer.

Ren stared at Naruto. "...How does he do that...?" He asked, seeing Nora sitting quietly, deeply concentrating.

"Aiming for lessons?" Phrrha asked her friend.

Ren nodded.

 **Under normal circumstances the red haired Huntress in training of team NNPR would have been laughing at the ridiculous situations that her fellow Huntress was imagining, but her worry for her friend and captain's safety had taken precedent in her mind.**

"Sorry!" Naruto cried as the others all gave him looks.

 **Logically speaking she shouldn't be worried, knowing full well that Naruto could more than take care of himself under most circumstances. However that same logical part of her brain was quick to point out that while extremely powerful for his age, her blond captain was not invincible by any means. He could still be hurt, he could still bleed, and even worse, he could still be killed.**

Minato and Kushina paled and started trembling and hyperventilating.

"Sorry!" Pyrrha cried, seeing how Naruto's mother and father took that as their child attempted to get them to calm down. Oh just great! Now she'd done it!

 **As that dreadful thought crossed her mind, the sound of someone knocking at their door pulled her from her worry invoked daze. Hoping that it was their missing whiskered blond come back from wherever he was, Pyrrha rushed to the door.**

 **Opening it and seeing a shock of sun kissed blond hair, a sigh of relief escaped her lips. That was however taken back when she opened the door fully, revealing that knocking at the door was not the blond of team NNPR, but the blonde of team RWBY.**

"Sorry to disappoint you..." Yang pouted.

"Yang, relax. Just worried for their friend is all." Ruby told her elder sibling.

 **Before Pyrrha could even get a word in, a worried looking Ruby stepped into view and spoke, "Is Blake with you guys?"**

 **Sighing, the taller red head shook her head, "No she's not."**

 **"She's probably with Naruto then," Yang said with a shrug.**

 **"Naruto has also been missing as well," Ren said, joining the conversation.**

 **Clearly even more worried than before, Ruby interjected, "Wait so Naruto is missing as well? He didn't say where he wa** **s going?"**

 **Seeing the sad shake of Pyrrha's head did nothing to ease the younger teen's fears.**

"Sorry!" Naruto cried, he hated making his friends worry!

 **Now beginning to realize the oddness of the situation, Yang became somewhat serious, "Blake didn't tell us anything either, and that's not like them to just up and leave without saying anything to someone."**

"Seeing as he at least wanted to leave a note for you guys, I take full responsibility." Blake said.

 **With a huff, the final member of the all girl team jumped into the conversation, "Maybe we're just blowing this whole thing out of proportion. What if Blake asked Naruto to go with her somewhere or something?"**

 **The other occupants of the room turned to look at Weiss as if she had grown a second head, "What!? Is it that weird that Blake and Naruto would actually get along?"**

Naruto and Blake looked at one another, then at the rest of the Remnent teens. Sheesh...was it honestly that strange?

* * *

 **Browsing through one of the many book stores in Vales shopping district, Blake began to feel an odd tingling in her nose. That tingle soon became that familiar feeling and with a short intake of breath, the cat Faunus sneezed.**

 **Naruto popped his head over the shelf that stood between him and his friend and said, "Bless you."**

 **Rubbing her nose to get rid of the slightly itchy feeling left by the sudden sneeze, Blake replied, "Thanks."**

 **Returning to her browsing, the young woman continued on with her previous conversation, "So you're godfather was an author? What's the title of one of his books?"**

 **Busy browsing through his own half of the book shelf, Naruto shrugged, "His first book was 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi'. Sadly it wasn't a huge hit or anything, but my parents liked it enough to name me after the main character."**

"He just released it at a bad time." Minato said. Honestly...a book involving war right after an actual war ended? Who WOULD want to read that?

Kushina nodded. It was the only book that Jiraiya had made that she thoroughly enjoyed, and it made her happy to have named her boy after the leading role.

 **"So what about his other books?"**

Naruto's cheeks blazed. Oh, just great!

 **The sound of something hitting the floor caused Blake to look over the shelf to see her blond friend blushing as he picked up the books he had dropped.**

 **Putting the last of the dropped books back on the shelf, Naruto sheepishly began to chuckle and rub the back of his head, "Uh...well, they were a little...different from his first book."**

 **Quirking a brow, the stoic girl asked, "How so?"**

"They were basically "How-to-die-a-virgin Manuals" and were used better for target practice than reading." Naruto said, Kakashi gasping and staring at Naruto, horrified.

"The Icha Icha series aren't "Virgin Manuals"! No live woman can dare compete with the joys Icha Icha gives!" Kakkashi snapped.

"I see...then by what you just said added onto the fact that _HE_ can't stand those books...you just confessed that all fans of Icha Icha have less active sex lives than _Might Guy!"_ Naruto cackled.

Kakashi looked stunned at that, then let out a loud howl of agony like a wounded animal, collapsed and curled up in to a ball, shaking with his knees to his chest, sputtering gibberish to himself.

The collective females in the room all looked immesnsly pleased at the sight of the spirit-broken pervert.

"...Better off if you need to ask but don't; that describes Guy and his personality pretty well." Minato said, figuring it would be best to cut them off now.

Everyone from Remnent nodded.

 **"Uhhhh...well it was a series called...'Icha Icha'...," Just saying the name had Naruto feeling like he should bang his head on a wall or something.**

"No fooling..." Naruto muttered.

 **Jiraiya was many things, and he had been the male role model the blond so needed at a time of his life that could have made or broke him. However that didn't change the fact that at his roots, the famed Sage of Mt. Myōboku was an unrepentant and shameless pervert.**

"...Wait...so the unrepentent and shamless pervert that would have tricked you into loosing your...he was your male role model figure!?" Weiss looked utterly appalled.

"To be fair, I didn't have anyone else, and I tuned out any of his "advice" in regards to anything that he might have twisted to relate to being preverted..."

"So THAT was why he tried to trick you!" Kushina cried, snatching her son up and holding him close, tears running down her face.

 **"...Make out?" Blake said with a blush lighting her cheeks as she realized what kind of books Naruto's godfather wrote. The title was simple, but no doubt did the job of describing exactly what the book entailed.**

* * *

 **Not being able to resist, Ruby allowed a snort to escape as she laughed at her teammate, "Come on Weiss, Naruto and Blake getting along? That's like you and Nora becoming best friends or something."**

"Is it wrong I feel an I-told-you-so mement coming from Weiss seeing as she's actually right?" Kushina asked.

Weiss looked highly pleased at that.

 **At that, the room's occupants laughed at the absurdity of such a notion.**

 **To be fair the thought did seem far fetched. As it was the Schnee heiress had very little interactions with team NNPR outside of her odd friendship with their blond captain and the few short talks she had with Pyrrha. The fact that, despite recent changes with her interactions with her team, and to a degree, Naruto, Weiss was still pretty stuck up**

"I am not!" Weiss protested.

 **and people like Nora just bothered her on principle alone, played a huge part.**

"Not in small doses..." Weiss admitted.

 **Nora, while extremely bubbly and cheerful, held no love for the heiress of team RWBY, something which was again not that surprising. Again outside of their acknowledgement of each other during such times as this, they had nothing to say to the other. The fact that their personalities clashed so heavily and without their being a need for them to get along, the likelihood of the two young women actually becoming much more than acquittances was pretty much zero.**

 **Putting fist to palm, the younger captain of team RWBY called out, "Looks like we'll have to assemble a search and rescue team to find our friends!"**

"Ruby..." Minato said, "assembling a serch and rescue team is a bit extream."

"What? Our friends can't be found, and I worry." She shrugged, "I just want to know the people I care about are safe."

Naruto smiled at that. He didn't like making Ruby worry, but he understood reasoning perfectly.

 **For some reason as the three members of each team began to go over a game plan of sorts, Pyrrha had the sinking feeling that Naruto and Blake would end up finding them, in some of form of trouble.**

"With our luck? No doubt." Jaune moaned.

"Yep." Ruby agreed.

"I can see it." Weiss said.

"Danger prone all the way." Yang nodded.

Pyrrha sighed.

Ren shook his head.

"Bring on the doom!" Nora called, getting odd looks from everyone else.

"What? It was getting gloomy." she defended.

* * *

 **For what had to be the dozenth time that morning, both Naruto and Blake sneezed within seconds of each other. They shared a look, both teens wondering what was causing them to sneeze like a kid with every allergy ever. Deciding that it was better left unexplored, the blond shrugged as the two continued their stroll out into one of the less populated areas of Vale.**

 **The reason?**

 **None really. Blake had already browsed quite a number of book shops and bought herself a small stack of the ones that had caught her eye. Naruto meanwhile had bought a small number of books that dealt with Dust and its uses as well as its manufacturing. Sure he had a number of Jutsu under his belt from each element that could far out do anything a Dust user could do, but learning how to use the stuff should he ever have to wouldn't be a bad thing.**

Weiss smiled and nodded. As the heiress of the Schee Dust Company, she could attest to Dust being useful on a higher degree than most. And while Naruto had his own unique skillset, it was good to see he was at least studying up for a just-in-case situation.

Why couldn't Ruby be that practical?

 **With his own near ocean sized reserves and stamina it was highly unlikely he'd ever run out of chakra though, compound that with the fact that he could draw upon Nature chakra to bolster his reserves as well as borrow from Kurama who had an almost limitless amount of chakra, and it would take days for the blond to even come close to running out.**

Naruto and the others from Konoha nodded, that was true, especally since Remnent seemed to lack those who could honestly push Naruto to the point of complete exhaustion in confrontations.

 **Still though, the concept of Dust and how the people of Remnant used it intrigued our blond protagonist. Thanks to Dust you didn't have to be aligned to a certain element to use it, in fact anyone was more than capable of using every element, a feat Shinobi were only capable of with decades of training or having access to a Kekkai Genkai. That didn't mean that the people of Remnant didn't align with certain elements more than others like those of the Elemental Countries. He had yet to see anyone outside of Weiss really use Dust though so at this point he was mostly going off of guess work.**

 ** _'Hmm actually I might have to talk to Princess later. She probably knows a lot about Dust and I did want to ask her about her glyphs,'_ Naruto thought to himself.**

Weiss nodded. She was going to enjoy that talk with Uzumaki. And a way to compair his sealing arts to her glyphs...she wouldn't deny that she was excited by the prospect and any potential avenues it could present her with!

 ** _'As powerful as the ability to draw your seals on thin air like that would be, I doubt it is something she would be able to teach you. These Semblance powers are extremely unique to an individual, far more so than even the Kekkai Genkai of the Shinobi. In fact the only thing that children seem capable of inheriting from their parents is this Aura and possible elemental alignment,'_ Kurama chimed in.**

"Kekkai Genkai?"

"Special powers passed down genetically through certain families." Mikoto cleared up, possessing a Kekkai Genkai herself.

Though it always confused and annoyed her when people said Kekkai Genkai were the result of mixing two types of chkara together. If that were the case, then wouldn't EVERYONE have Kekkai Genkai just because they had chakra? The term literally meant "Bloodline Limit" for a reason. The idea of the mixing of two types of chkara together being what made those abilities just undermined that concept of needing spefic genes in order to have those abilities.

 **Being the pseudo child of the famed Sage of Six Paths, the origin of both chakra and a multitude of Kekkai Genkai, the Bijū had intimate knowledge of said topics. As such, the origin of Aura and Semblance intrigued the thousands of years old chakra construct due to the similarities and differences between the powers of the Shinobi and Huntsmen.**

 **While Naruto and his foxy friend chatted through their mental link, Blake took the time to ponder her own _thoughts_ that she had shoved to the back of her mind due to joy she had been feeling as she waltzed around Vale with her friend.**

"He's very good at making people feel better." Blake agreed with her other.

Everyone smiled and Naruto looked bashful.

 ** _'That look usually means Naruto is talking with Kurama. But how? They're not saying anything out loud. Then again Naruto did say that Kurama had been infused with his Aura from birth as some sort of experiment by his village. Wait, was he experimented on because he was a Faunus?'_**

Naruto winced at that...oh, that being brought up was going to chomp his butt good!

 **As the thought crossed her mind, the nagging curiosity began to gnaw at her, egging her on to get answers that would solve many of the mysteries that surrounded her blond friend.**

 **"Naruto," Blake said simple in a bid to catch the blond's attention.**

 **Seeing that she had both curious blue eyes and glaring crimson orbs staring at her, the young teen continued, "Were you the only Faunus in your village?"**

 **The question actually caught Naruto off guard, not only because of how out of left field it came, but also because he hadn't thought anyone would ask something like that, content to know that he was a "Faunus" and that he came from a place called Konoha.**

 **If the blonde wanted to continue the half truths trend that he had set thus far, he could say no, seeing as how both the Inuzuka and Aburame clans of his village were rather close to being Faunus like.**

"...Just how close?" Blake asked, interested.

 **Then again he had been the only Jinchūriki of Konoha, for obvious reasons, and as such didn't exactly have the best childhood due to being treated like the Faunus of Remnant - as a pariah, something that wasn't entirely human and so didn't deserve to be treated as one, a far cry from how the Inuzuka and Aburame clans were treated.**

Ruby gave Naruto another "comfort" hug, finding that horrifing for such a good person like Naruto to have to go through.

Kushina glared at Minato.

Mikoto flinched at that, she had wanted to fix that for Naruto...

 **Raking a hand through his hair and sighing in a way to make it seem like it was a sore subject when really he was just buying time, Naruto wracked his brain. On one hand he could get pretty close to the truth and let Blake know why he sympathized with the Faunus and why he didn't agree with the methods of the White Fang. On the other he could be a proper shinobi and keep her at arm's length by telling a flat out lie and simply dodging the question as best he could.**

 ** _'Tch, you, a proper shinobi? You and I both know that you have never been a "proper " shinobi, it's why that one eyed sensei of yours gave you your nickname and also why you've been able to grow so strong and create bonds with people whom "proper" nin would have simply left to die._**

"...You're that way?" Ruby said, awed. She found Naruto's being that good a person amazing.

 ** _On top of that, remember, there is a 99.9% chance of us never being able to go back there. What's done is done. Remnant and Vale are now our home.'_**

 ** _'...Kurama?'_**

 ** _'Yeah, Kit?'_**

 ** _'Thanks. I don't know what I'd do without you.'_**

 ** _'Probably dead or still being a dumbass.'_**

 **Disregarding his closest friend's snarky comment knowing that it was simply how the Bijū was, Naruto not only decided on what his answer to Blake's question was, but also he had realized how right Kurama was.**

 **Ever since he had come to Remnant he had been searching of a way to get back to his home, to the life he had built there while Kurama reminded him that the likelihood of that happening was all but zero. He had been telling half truths and hiding a number of things from his team as well as team RWBY in the hope that when he went back home, it wouldn't hurt him or them. But now, he really had no reason to hide behind lies and half truths. Like Kurama had said, Vale was now his home.**

 **Albeit it probably wasn't the best idea to go up to his friends and tell them, "Hey yeah I'm actually a Shinobi from a different dimension and/or time period. Oh yeah the cute fox I keep with me? Yeah he's really a thousands of years old chakra monster that can pretty much destroy this place by accident."**

"...Yeesh! That WOULD make us think you were nuts!" Yang said.

"Truth is stranger than fiction. At least in our minds, you being a Faunus, or even a human/Faunus hybrid, that's something we can rationalize enough in our own minds enough to where we won't question it. Half-truths are safer nd easier to believe." Blake said, nodding. No wonder Naruto was going with that route. It made perfect sense to her.

 **So while he wouldn't be getting rid of the half truths entirely, he would start being a bit more honest and forthcoming, possible even hint at the truth so that when the time came for him to eventually tell the truth, it wouldn't be such a huge bomb to drop.**

Naruto nodded, he felt relieved at that course of action.

 **"Yeah I was the only one. My mom was also a...'Faunus' but because of some issues during my birth I lost both her and my dad."**

"Yeah...a saboteur with a chip on the shoulder against the sheer concept of reality itself..."

Mikoto winced. That sounded horrifically like the more beligerent members of the Uchiha.

 **Blake raised a brow at the odd way the blond had said the word Faunus, almost as if he was being a terrible liar before she shrugged it off in favor of the realization that not only was he the only Faunus of his home village, but he was also orphaned at a young age.**

"Naruto...you..." Ruby's eyes teared up.

"Ruby―don't." Naruto sighed, "I don't need or want your pity. It won't do me a damn thing. That's not to say I don't appreciate that you care, but I've found that you can either piss and moan feeling sorry for yourself OR you can get up and actually do things to improve the situation. That's why I don't accept pity."

 **"I'm sorry! I didn't realize how-" Blake began, truly apologetic that she had no doubt drawn up some deeply traumatic memories.**

 **Naruto merely shrugged, "You didn't know and besides, I've made my peace with it. I didn't have the best of childhoods, but it shaped me into who I am today. Plus I know that my parents truly loved me to their dying breath, and that's all I need to know."**

Minato and Kushina nodded.

 **The young cat Faunus smiled at how mature the usually goofy blond looked and handled the situation. It was a bit of an odd sight to see, Naruto being known more for his childishness than his maturity, but before her wasn't that same teen who had complained that the café didn't have ramen, but a man who had seen and done a lot, but still held tightly to his convictions and knew who he was as an individual.**

The Remnent group all nodded, impressed. And Naruto did have that kind of air about him. They'd seen flicks of it here and there, but on the whole, it showed itself when Naruto did or said something when he was serious; otherwise, when there wasn't a reason to need to be be serious, he was his normal, relaxed and goofy self.

 **"Why the sudden question?" Naruto asked, curious what had brought on such a random inquiry.**

 **Turning to see that they had arrived at Vale's docks for both boats and airships, the two teens decided to relax for a bit and sat down at the edge of the concrete dock, their legs dangling over the surprisingly calm waters.**

 **Leaning back on her hands, Blake allowed her gaze to stray out to the waters that met the falling sun, creating a burst of purples and reds in a beautiful contrasting view, "You and Kurama looked like you were talking, but weren't saying anything. I know you can talk to foxes, but you two looked like you were talking to each other in your minds which reminded that you had said Kurama had been an experiment by your village..."**

 **Nodding his head as he leaned forward resting his arms on his thighs as he shared in the view of the beatifically painted horizon, Naruto continued from where Blake had left off, "And you were wondering if I was experimented on because of my being a...'Faunus', right?"**

 **Raising a brow yet again at the odd way in which her blond friend seemed to say Faunus, she nonetheless nodded, far more curious about how villages outside the control of the four kingdoms handled the topic of Faunus.**

 **"Like I said I didn't have the best of childhoods. Growing up people would either treat me like I didn't exist or like I was some nuisance that they had to deal with, because they had no choice. Nobody told me why and whenever I asked the leader of our village, one of the only people to give a damn about me, why, he'd just dodge the question, telling me they needed time," Naruto said with sorrowful look crossing his face. Just because he had come to terms with his past and the emotions that had been borne of it, didn't make it any less shitty.**

Naruto took a deep breath as he took his parents' hands, giving them a squeeze. They smiled at him, letting him know it was ok. The bad part of his life was over and, for the moment, they were with him.

 **Meanwhile his raven haired companion could only feel both anger and sadness. Anger that not only was someone as genuinely kind as Naruto having been treated like he didn't and shouldn't exist, but equally angry that no one told him why. To just leave him, a child no less, in the dark like that was cruel. It was for those same reasons that Blake was saddened, to hear how a child was left alone - no one to care for him, no one to tell him he was loved, no one to tell him that he mattered.**

Both RWBY's and JNPR's mbers looked both sorrowful and outraged at the idea of a person having to be made to live like that.

 **As hard as she had it, at the end of the day she knew why she was treated differently, and even still she had other Faunus, her family that cared for her.**

 **She was pulled from her thoughts when the blond seated next to her sighed and continued, "But to answer your question, no, I wasn't experimented on. Really I wasn't abused, psychically at least. Wasn't till I was thirteen that I found out why I was treated so differently. It wasn't for another three years that I found out why no one was allowed to touch me or even try to."**

 **That did raise some questions. Despite the people no doubt knowing of Naruto's status, he was never harmed physically which was odd. If they so despised his existence what had stopped them from taking out their disgust and aggression on him?**

 **"When I turned sixteen, my godfather told me that my village's leader, the man I saw as a grandfather, had ordered that no one harm me or they would be put to death and he had an almost round the clock guard of our most elite warriors to make sure the law was carried out. At first I wondered why I needed so much protecting. My godfather answered that too. My father had been our previous leader. Ironically the people had loved him and he had been poised to become one of our village's strongest warriors, but he had died the night I was born, defending our home."**

"Guys...please, just...just don't, ok..." Naruto sighed. He understood why this would bother his new friends, but it was his issue to deal with.

"...Not right..." Ruby said, no wonder Naruto didn't want to be pitied. But how could people be that cruel? She couldn't stand that!

 **Blake couldn't help the scoff of disgust that escaped her lips. To love the father, but hate the son for something no one could control was abhorrent. It truly showed how narrow minded some people could be.**

Blake shifted uncomfortably. Well...that answered why Naruto was such a strong supporter of the Faunus, excluding the current White Fang. A little _too_ well as a matter of fact.

 **Laughing at the uncharacteristic scoff, Naruto nodded, "Yeah my reaction was kind of similar to that too."**

 ** _'You were so angry that you tapped into my chakra and drew up six tails worth of it and in your anger induced haze almost murdered that pervert you call a godfather. Yeah, real similar to a derisive scoff,'_ Kurama snarked.**

"Had every right to be pissed!" Yang snapped.

 **Deciding to ignore the shame he felt knowing that the Kyuubi was right, Naruto instead turned his gaze back out to the horizon as the hues of purple began to overtake the reds as the sun fell, the moon already having begun its own trek across the sky. It was a sight to see, something that literally happened everyday and yet was still so calming and beautiful.**

 **Stretching out his hands and allowing a yawn to escape his lips, the half blood Uzumaki allowed himself to fall on his back, his arms resting behind his head and his legs still dangling over the wharf's edge. Blake drew her legs upwards and likewise turned her own gaze skyward as the moon brought with it the blanket of night and the sky was lit with the twinkling glow of the distant stars.**

 **Silence reigned between the two, both more than comfortable enough to let the sounds of the water lapping at the concrete wall below them be the only noise to break that silence.**

 **Not minutes later that serenity and sense of peace was shattered when an explosion rocked the pier with the recognizable sounds of battle following soon after.**

"...Well, there it is. Our usual luck..." Jaune sighed.

 **Even still neither seemed all that bothered by the harsh sounds of bullet fire and steel clashing against steel. Instead Naruto only turned to look at Blake with a grin, "Five Lin that it's either your team or both of our teams involved in the fighting."**

 **The usually stoic teen only raised an eyebrow in response before shrugging, "The likelihood of that being the case is slim to none. You're on."**

Blake moaned. Knowing her team's and JNPR's uck. That was a sucker's bet her other just agreed to!

 **Poor Blake of course didn't know that betting against Naruto Uzumaki was never a smart idea. The blond had the Devil's Luck and Lady Luck's blessing and at the age of 14 had cleaned out enough casinos that he could've retired and never had to work again. Put simply, betting against the Kyuubi Jinchūriki was tantamount to betting that the sun wouldn't rise from the east.**

Yang looked at Naruto with Lin signs in her eyes then Ruby smacked her over the head "No!"

"But...but..."

"NO exploiting our friend to get ritch!" Ruby frowned at her sister.

 **Leaping to their feet, the two calmly made their way to the sounds of fighting and explosions, seemingly in no rush. With casual ease, both teens leapt on top of one of the many stacks of shipping containers that dotted the wharf and the sight below them had Blake sighing and Naruto grinning cheekily.**

"Look at you two, just treating this as no big deal." Mikoto shook her head, amused.

 **There in the middle of the rather empty pseudo arena was the notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick. Currently the cane wielding man was doing his best to keep a certain red haired javelin user at bay while also dodging the sweeping strikes that came from the scythe wielding captain of team RWBY.**

 **His accomplice, Neo, was merrily dodging every strike and punch that came from the combined duo of Yang and Weiss with that unnerving smile stretching across her pale face. It seemed that she was just toying with the Schnee heiress and busty brawler while they tried their damnedest to land a single hit on the diminutive girl.**

"Hate her...!" Yang growled, rubbing her knuckles as she recalled the tri-colored girl slapping her around like a ragdoll while Yang herself couldn't even touch the brat!

 **Team NNPR's duo of best friends was meanwhile trying their best to land any sort of hit on Torchwick's boss who was keeping them at bay and far from her with her outlandish control over Dust, in this case being Fire element Dust. Nora seemed to have suffered quite a few hits from the stuff, the outer parts of her outfit being a little burned while Ren was quickly running out of steam having to dodge and maintain some form of attack while also helping out his childhood friend when he could.**

Ruby frowned at the image of the one shooting flames from her hands. Why was ahe so sure she'd at least seen that person?

 **Pyrrha and Ruby seemed to be more than capable of keeping Torchwick on the ropes, if his look of irritation was anyone to go by. Weiss and Yang could use some help, and Naruto knew from experience that the only way to get the upper hand on the ice cream themed girl was through speed. However the biggest threat was no doubt the head honcho herself. Even Naruto would admit that Nora and Ren working as team Pancake was a force to be reckoned with and for this woman to so easily keep them at bay spoke volumes about her own skills.**

 **His mind working a mile a minute, Naruto finally decided on what he thought was the beat course of action, "Blake, go help out Yang and Weiss. The only way to beat that girl is to out-speed her."**

 **Deciding to wait till after to ask how her blond friend knew that,**

"Fought her before." Blake said, recalling last chapter.

 **Blake nodded and quickly leapt into the fray, grabbing her weapon from her back and already moving to provide her teammates with much needed back up.**

"Rescued by the kitty ninja." Yang couldn't help but snicker, then paled when she noticed that Naruto, Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, Kakashi, and Blake were all glaring, clearly offended.

"Eheheh...uh...shutting up?" Yang gulped.

The six nodded.

 **Pulling out his own weapon, Naruto was soon jumping into the midst of the fighting himself. Vanishing from normal human eyesight, the blond made a bee line for his own teammates who looked ready to collapse any second now. Blurring through a series of one handed hand seals, the Jinchūriki appeared in front of the downed duo of friends and called out, "Suiton: Suijinheki _(Water Release: Water Formation Wall)_!"**

"But that's a two-handed...!" Kakashi sputtered.

"Work hard enough, and the impossible becomes possible." Naruto smirked as his teacher.

 **To everyone's surprise a massive torrential wall of water rose around Naruto, Ren, and Nora, protecting the three teens from the stream of flames that had been aimed at them. In the face of such an insurmountable defense, the raging flames sputtered and died, turning into vapor and clouding the area with a fog.**

"Whooh! Nice backup!" Nora cheered.

 ** _'If I'm gonna stop hiding all the time, I guess it's ok to start busting out the jutsu, right Kurama?'_**

 ** _'Bout damn time Kit! Let's show these people how we do it!'_**

"Incoming badass!" Yang cheered.

"Hope Vail's got a good budget, my big moves cause a lot of collateral damage." Naruto winced.

"Even better!" Nora shot him a thimbs up.

"Nora...that's not a good thing!" Ren sighed.

 **What happened next had everyone in the area holding their ears to block out the screeching noise that began to grow louder and louder with each passing second.**

Blake cringed and covered her ears with a whimper. Her poor ears! Make is stop!

 **In seconds, strong winds began to blow throughout the wharf, dispelling the fog in seconds and revealing a grinning Naruto holding something that none of the spectators had ever seen before.**

"Holy...! THAT'S my opening act!?" Naruto yelped at seeing what jutsu his other self had decided to bust out.

 **Spinning wildly and held above of his head was what looked to be an overly large shuriken made entirely of pure wind. At the center of the deadly looking attack was a glowing blue sphere that sat in the palm of the blond Jinchūriki's hand. With a casual heave, Naruto tossed the violently whirling attack and called out, "Fūton: Rasenshuriken _(Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)_!"**

 **Fearing what such a devastating looking attack could do if it actually hit,**

Damn right she should!" Kakashi muttered. He'd seen the damage a Rasenshuriken was capable of!

 **the wide eyed woman dodged out of the way of the oncoming shuriken and even still the near gale force winds that surrounded orb of death were able to produce cuts in her dress and even cut shallow trenches into her calves.**

"Wait for it..." Naruto smirked, he was looking forward to his new friends from Remnent seeing this!

 **As the spinning attack flew past everyone and into the waters in the distance, Naruto finally allowed his control over it to be cut and the consequences of that action had everyone staring in awe at the results. The winds that had been the makeup of the attack rushed outwards, creating waves that slammed into the concrete barriers of the pier and even then, the winds managed to whip into those on the battlefield with enough force that they had to actually exert force so as to not be carried away.**

 **Meanwhile as the core of the attack detonated, blades of wind capable of cutting into an enemy on an atomic level, slammed into the waters below, churning out colossal waves that further flooded the already wet wharf.**

 **Around them the sounds shipping freights scraping across the ground as they were forcible pushed back by the concussive waves of air echoed across the wharf.**

"HOLY SHIT!" Yang cried at the top of her lungs.

"NO WAY!" Ruby gawked.

"What the HELL was THAT?" Blake stared.

"..That's...I can't...Why...How did-no, what did he-!" Weiss struggled to understand what just happened.

"So calling dibs on the whisked badass as our team leader!" Nora cheered.

"...Just how much did you have to hold back?!" Ren demanded, staring at Naruto.

Jaune fainted.

"...And here I was worried about being seen as the overpowered one...is it wrong this display makes me feel "normal" rather than like that moniker of "the invincible girl" makes me seem?" Pyrrha muttered.

 **Finally, as the backlash of what Naruto had just unleashed receded, the villains decided that fleeing was the best course of action, hopping into a nearby helicopter that was quickly attempting to escape the dangerous blond.**

"Yeah! You better run!" Naruto hooted with laughter.

"...He so gets that from you..." Minato and Mikoto deadpanned to Kushina.

The redhead just beamed at that, fully proud!

 **Uzumaki Naruto did not give up that easily though and was already speeding through another set of seals. Right as it looked like the group of criminals had escaped, he unleashed a torrent of flames from his mouth, "Katon: Karyū Endan _(Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet)_!"**

"Naruto...how do you...?" Mikoto asked.

The whiskered teen shrugged, "Can't know an Uchiha without needing to study up on what flames they'd use. And I've known BOTH of yours!" He told her.

Mikoto nodded. Good point.

 **On board the escaping heli, the group of criminals began to panic as the roaring maw of dragon made entirely of flames closed in on them, intent on bringing them to a burning grave.**

"That's not good for the blatter control..." Yang whisped, still in shock.

 **Rushing to one of the side doors, the mysterious leader conjured up her own wall of flames, the fearsome inferno that had taken on a draconian image slamming full force into her own blazing attack.**

 **The resulting explosion rocked the escape vehicle and the nearby shipping containers and yet still they managed to escape, however not unscathed.**

"There's a fight-fire-with-fire joke in that, but I don't wanna kill the mood..." Kakashi said.

 ** _'That boy...I need him on my side even more now. He is far too powerful to not and I will have him, one way or another.'_**

* * *

 **Sighing as he watched the escaping hunk of metal, Naruto shook his head, _'This is gonna come back to bite me in the ass, I just know it.'_**

"No duh, other me..." Naruto muttered.

 ** _'More than likely. However at least they now fear you and know that messing with you or those around you would not be a smart move on their part. It may stop them and help us later on down the road,'_ Kurama spoke.**

Minato grunted. Was it wrong he agreedwith that point considering his own reputation?

 **Turning around, the blond was quick to realize the amount of devastation he had caused with only three attacks, none of which being his strongest either. What made it worse were the dumbfounded looks his own team and team RWBY were sending him.**

"Three...two...one..." Naruto winced.

 **"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOXY!?" Yang shouted as she flailed her arms about in a manner none too unlike her younger sister.**

"Yeah...there's the freak-out." Mikoto nodded.

 **"I found you Ruby!"**

 **Said scythe wielder screamed in shock, "Ah! Penny! What're you doing here!?"**

"Hi Penny!" Ruby waved cheerfully, snapping out of her shock at the sight of her friend.

 **Soon after the blaring sounds of sirens along with the bright lights of search lights flooded the pier.**

 ** _'Maybe I should have just stuck to the whole half truth thing.'_**

 ** _'You and I both know that this is way more fun though.'_**

 ** _'Says the fox whose idea of fun is destroying villages.'_**

 ** _'Not my fault you ningen make everything so fragile'_**

 ** _'...this is gonna be a loooong night.'_**

"Understatement." Ren nodded in agreement with the last line.

"Ok...so with that chapter out of the way...whose hungry, and what'er we going to do for food?" Naruto askec everyone.

Everyone looked at one another, realizing that point.

What WHERE they all going to do for food here?!


	9. Chapter 9

As the group thought on what to do on the food situation, Naruto suddenly perked up and went over to Mikoto and whispered something in her ear in a quick, hushed tone.

When she pulled away from him, the Uchiha woman grinned michviously and put her red Hannya mask back on and then vanished in her Kamui jutsu.

"Naruto...what did you just do?" Kakashi asked.

The teen only smiled, "Wait for it..."

Thirty minutes later, Mikoto returned. "Got everything you asked for, Naruto-Kun." she said before the Kamui started again and a munber of eatables came from the ripple in space. From the looks of it, Mikoto had raided a grocery store.

However, what really was shocking was that along with all the food, to everyone's surprise save for Naruto, there was also a teenaged girl.

The girl had lightly tanned skin, most likely due to the amount of time she trained outdoors, much like his own. Her long, chocolate brown hair was done up in a practical style of two Chinese-style chignon buns, one on either side of her head with them parted by a space between them in the middle so that they resembled the ears of a panda or a cartoon mouse to keep it out her face when she was fighting, and her forehead protector was around her forehead with the spiral arrow symbol of the Leaf right in the center of her forehead and framed underneath a fringe she had of a few strands of hair being used like bangs. Her eyes were the same shade of brown as her a long-sleeved white blouse with a high collar and red fastener and edges paired with similarly coloured, puffy pants that look like a hakama, with the exposed parts of her legs near the waist covered in bandages. She wore brown fingerless gloves, with her forehead protector having switched to the same color and her shinobi sandals having been replaced by black, open-toed sandals with low heels, and the shoes extend to the lower ankles; everything was a reference to the Chinese culture. She held a giant scroll strapped on her back.

Wadding through the food, Naruto went over to her and helped her up and lead her over to Ruby.

"Uhh...huh? Naruto? What happened? Where are we?" She asked, apparently disorented and shaking it off after a few moments and recognized him.

Naruto smirked, "Tell you later. For now, there's someone here that wants to meet you, Tenten." He told the newcomer.

"YOU'RE Tenten?!" Ruby squealed, stars in her eyes.

Seeing how exstatic the red-and-black themed girl was, Tenten looked from Ruby to Naruto, clearly confused.

"Tenten, this is Ruby. Fellow armament connoisseur." Naruto introduced, smirking.

Tenten blinked, then beamed at Ruby and was soon happily chatting away with the young Rose about weapon specifics, Ruby doing likewise with sheer gusto, then she hugged Tenten, "Super bestie better than the restie! Armament connoisseurs forever!" Ruby cheered.

"Sisterhood of the ammo fanatics..." Naruto chuckled, shaking his head as he looked on the two.

"How did you...With how socially akward my sister is...?" Yang gawked.

Naruto shrugged, "Just good with people. Know these two would bond over love of weapons. Everyone knows common ground helps with getting to know people, after all." he said as he formed a group of clones and had them put the results of Mikoto's shopping trip away. As he looked around, feeling pleased, he caught sight of Weiss glaring at Ruby and Tenten and went over to the girl.

Sheesh...that was a lot on negitivity coming off of her. In fact...based off what his empathic abilities from being Kurama's host could tell, it felt like...

"Weiss, you're not...jealous, are you?" Naruto asked.

The aformentioned girl jumped and stared at the blond in shock. "W-w-what?! I'm...no, of corse not! Why would I be jealous that Ruby's...replaced...me...as...her..." the heiress trailed off as she grit her teeth and started grinding them.

Naruto rose a brow, "Uh-huh...sure you're not jealous of Tenten potenitally replacing you as Ruby's "Super bestie better than the restie", Weiss." he said with a knowing smirk.

The red-faced glare she gave him was well worth it and served to amuse the others.

"Oh yes...there was one more thing. On my way back here, I met someone that was interested in joining our reading group." Mikoto said.

At that, every one turned to her as she released a will-o-the-whisp from her kamui this time and energy, which the shinobi present recognized as pure chakra, struck it as it floated in the air. As it did so, the spectral flame changed. Growing bigger and shifting, sprouting limbs and changing into a humanoide shape before in a flash like lightning, where the whisp had been was a young woman

She looked about Kushina's age and was dressed in a white hooded cloak that covered a white high-neck décolletage blouse. Her outfit made use of a black and red skirt, an overbust corset while she wore black belt bordered in red. She had on thigh-high stockings that reached to a few inches below the hem of her skirt, decorated by an image of a long-stemmed rose. Her black boots containing four straps and buckles apiece. She had silver eyes, a pale complexion, and black and red hair worn long.

While many of the room's occupants had no idea who this person was, the minute Ruby and Yang had seen the cloak, they felt their hearts clench and tears form in their eyes.

To Ruby she was everything she had ever aspired to be, the woman who had read her the bedtime stories she so adored, the woman who had taught her what it meant to not only be a Huntress, but a good person.

To Yang she was the woman who, despite not having given birth to her, had taken her in and raised her as her own flesh and blood. She was Super-Mom: baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters.

As silver eyes flickered open, she smiled upon seeing her two beautiful daughters already rushing towards her.

Engulfing the two young teens in a hug, the three began to cry. Tears long held in, tears of words not said and tears of an immense joy flowed freely.

Ruby and Yang were reunited with their mother, Summer Rose.

The others were shocked, but then Naruto smiled. He enjoyed moments like this. He had his, now it was obvious Yang and Ruby were getting their own.

Naruto looked at Mikoto and nodded, a supportive smile on his face.

As for the others, they smiled as they watched Ruby and Yang have their moment of reunion.

For Weiss, she mused thoughts of what her life would've been like without the Schnee name being so significant. She couldn't help but imagine it to be much more enjoyable, but she knew that she wouldn't have met her friends if her life had been any different. And to be honest...she saw Ruby, Yang and Blake as her family more that she did her biological one with the exception of her older sister Winter.

For Blake, it reminded her of her parents back home and how they had always loved and supported her before she ran off with Adam and the White Fang. Guilt and shame filled her, and she mentally made plans to finally get back in touch with her family, if for no other reason than to say how much they meant to her.

"So girls...the one in the mask and white outfit told me what was going on. So natrually, I couldn't pass up the chance to be with my daughters again." Summer smiled.

Ruby started crying and Yang tightened her grip on the woman that she had called a mother to her.

"You set this up, didn't you?" Tenten asked, going over to Naruto.

"You yes, her no." He said, not taking his eyes from the reunion.

Kushina went over to the Uchiha and gave her a low five, smiling at Mikoto, who returned it. "Used your status as a onryō to pop into the afterlife and get her for Ruby and Yang, eh? Now that's something the Mikoto Uchiha I know would pull..." the redhead praised.

Summer smiled as she gentley, albet reluctantly, pulled away from Ruby and Yang, "So girls...see you've grown. Been taking care of one another?"

"Of course!" the siblings replied in unison.

"And who are your friends?" Summer inquired.

"Oh! That's Weiss!" Ruby said, pointing to her partner.

"Blake's the one in black with the cat ears!" Yang said.

"Then there's Jaune! And Ren!" Ruby introduced.

"Not to mention Pyrrha and Nora!" Yang supplied.

At that, said people let out welcomes as they were each pointed out. Once they all were, attention shifted to the Konoha group.

"Name's Naruto." The whiskered teen supplied.

"Tenten." The weapon mistress smiled.

Kushina stood, went over to Summer, and exstended a hand, "Kushina's Uzumaki, Naruto's mother. Pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise." The white-cloaked woman supplied.

"Minato, Kushina's husband." The eldest male blond in the reading group said, with a smile and nod.

"Yo, Name's Kakashi Hatake." the masked man saild plesently.

Summer smiled, "Nice to meet you all, and already told me who she was when she came across me in the afterlife before bringing me here to join the reading group, so no need for introduction repeats. Though how she got into Remnent's afterlife, I guess has to do with that transport ability."

The Remnent group squeezed over, making room for Ruby and Yang as Summer sat between them.

"Now...where's this book? Since I'm here, I got this." Summer said.

Grinning, Jaune passed the book to the "White Rose", letting her know they were on the start of chapter seven.


	10. Chapter 10

**"Ya know I'd have thought most people wouldn't want to fight me after my little display at the docks," Naruto called out cockily to his sparring partner.**

"And after that display, he's got reason to be cocky about that! I mean...whooo!" Yang said, then turned to Konoha natives, "That was some army-killer style whooping he was dishing out! And you guys fought at monster levels like THAT!? I mean Damn...! Forget Huntress, I'm tempted to take up learning this ninja thing!"

Naruto shook his head haplessly. "Don't doubt you're kick-butt, Yang...but looking at the gap between what we can do, think you cross it?"

Yang blinked. Then thought about that before pouting. Blast!

"Hey...just means when you reach that level by your own merrits, you're that much of a badass without the ninja arts, Firecracker." Naruto said.

Yang perked up at that.

 **Said partner, the red haired beauty of team NNPR, shrugged, "It just gives me more reason to want to spar with you, so I can improve."**

 **And there it was. The reason, or at least one of them, that the blond Jinchūriki found himself attracted to his teammate and partner.**

Both Naruto and Pyrrha went red with Jaune started to take deep breaths, his eyes clamped shut and mentally repeating that this was only in the book.

 **She wasn't like most people who, upon attaining a certain level of strength, became content. No, Pyrrha was always striving to better herself in some capacity, be it her battle prowess or even herself as a person. And it wasn't for some selfish or contrived reason. No, the young battle prodigy simply wanted to be a better person for the sake of it and to better help those around her.**

Everyone smiled at Pyrrha at that, sounded just like her as far as they were concerned.

 **To Naruto, who was willing to lay down limb and life for those he considered his precious people, it was an endearing quality.**

Naruto nodded.

 **Sure he knew that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and even Kakashi were more than willing to - and had in the past - put themselves in harm's way to protect him, but to have that same level of loyalty and caring returned to him by someone his own age and of the opposite sex was new and inviting.**

Naruto suddely went red again and buried his face in his hands with a moan.

Kushina gave the younger redhead another apprasing look over.

 **Even amongst his peers, the Rookie 12, he had never felt that they would go above and beyond should push come to shove. Even when they found out he housed the chakra monster responsible for almost wiping Konoha off the map, he felt no closer to them. If anything they were more likely to keep him at arm's length.**

"WHAT?!" Ruby raged. "That's way too cruel! Naruto's a good person! He shouldn't have had to go through that!"

The sheer passion in her voice had everyone staring at her. Then Kushina smiled, got up, went over to Ruby, and promptly hugged the young girl.

"Heh...Ruby Rose: Kushina approved." Minato said, then shot Summer a warning look. The white-cloaked woman hid a smile and nodded. She got the message. Not that Summer saw what the warning was about as a bad thing.

Seemed Summer would need to start appraising Naruto herself. And if he passed...well, Summer and Kushina would have a lot of planning to do!

Naruto suddenly felt an ominous chill go up and down his spine.

After Kushina released Ruby and sat back down, Summer resumed reading.

 **To their credit it wasn't out of fear of him, but more fear of what would happen in the worst case scenario, which as shinobi one always had to be prepared for.**

"Oh..." Ruby said, embarressed about her outburst a moment ago. "Uhh...sorry about that..."

"Don't be..." Tenten told her weapons-bestie, though she looked ashamed of herself.

"Hey! We were trained to be that way! Nobody's fault!" Naruto snapped, not liking his friend beating herself up about it.

Tenten sighed, then shot Naruto a smile. Figures he wouldn't let a friend go through feeling guilty like that.

 **Stretching out his limbs and pumping chakra throughout his body in preparation for what would no doubt be a blood pumping spar, Naruto chuckled, "Alright so any rules or restrictions?"**

 **Pyrrha followed her partner's example and began to go through her own series of stretches, "While I'd like to ask you to at least try as hard as you did down on the pier, but I don't think it'd be a smart idea."**

"True. Still...having someone that could push me that hard in a match isn't something I'd like passing up..." Pyrrha frowned. It was a difficult choice on her part. She wanted to work for the win, but not be utterly outclassed first thing since she needed to be sure of just how large the gap between their level of ability actually was.

 **The blond had to give the green eyed Huntress-to-be credit, while he could underpower his jutsu so that they weren't as lethal or as destructive as they had been on that night, it still wouldn't lessen the fact that he would be breathing flames that took on the form of a mythical beast.**

"Fire element?" Tenten asked with a raised brow.

"Story universe only." Naruto clarified.

 **Sparring with other Shinobi meant that you at least had a vague idea of what your opponent could do, especially if you knew what village they hailed from. Here in the world of Remnant where the term ninja invoked the image of people sneaking around in black pajamas, no one would guess that Naruto's version of a ninja meant giving the finger to the laws of physics and telling Newton to shove an apple where the sun don't shine.**

"Ok...forget the black PJs, your guys' version of ninjas sound WAAAAAY more fun!" Yang laughed.

"Here here!" Nora cheered in agreement.

 **As such for anyone to be prepared to properly fight Naruto they would either have to fight him enough times to know what to expect or be given a cheat sheet with all of his attacks and what they did on it.**

"No offesnse, but I'd rather the cheat sheet..." Jaune muttered. Seeing the looks that got him, he turned to the others. "What?! You mean to tell me that him using those crazy moves on you over and over again to learn what to expect from this guy is something you'd want done to you?!"

"...Fair enough point." Weiss admitted.

 **Pyrrha being Pyrrha had obviously decided to go for the former.**

"Well, at least someone on your team has guts..." Kushina nodded.

Pyrrha blushed as her teammates all let out a loud and offended "HEY! at that.

 **"Alright so I'll keep it small scale and go from there. That alright?"**

 **Switching Miló into its javelin form while gripping Akoúo with her other hand, Pyrrha gave a firm nod.**

"Sounds like a plan."

"Wait...you guys have multi-function, convertable weaponry?!" Tenten squealed in delight, stars in her eyes.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. And most are custom built, too. I made my own weapon, Cressent Rose."

"Really?! Can I see it, Ruby?! Pretty please!?" Tenten begged, turning to her new friend.

Ruby smiled, "Of course! Didn't bring the actual one, but it will be shown along with a lot of other weapons from back home in the story. Wanna see about making your own Remnent-style weapon when this is over?"

Tenten squealed in delight, vibrating in her seat and her eyes rolled into her head and she passed out.

"An-n-nd we've lost her. She lasted longer than I thought," Naruto said, grinning as Ruby panicked and started trying to revive Tenten.

"…Weapon nerd down!" Yang cried out, grinning. "Medic!"

"Armament Connoisseur!" Ruby rebutted sternly, still trying to wake Tenten.

"You know...if she doesn't wake up, she'll miss seeing those weapons in action." Naruto said.

Instantly, Tenten's eyes shot open and looked around frantically. "I didn't miss the weapon demonstraitions, did I?!" she yelped frightfully.

Relieved, Ruby hugged the Konoha native, "Ahh, thank goodness...! Don't scare me like that again!"

Weiss' eye twitched violently as the rest of Ruby's friends and teammates snickered before Ruby went and sat back down.

 **Seeing that his friend was in her battle mode, Naruto decided that he'd give the "Invincible Girl" a harsher run for her money and pulled out Hi no Ishi.**

"Going to need to make that weapon..." Naruto reminded himself.

Tenten looked interested. "Oh? Any specifications?"

"Ask Ruby." Naruto grinned, smirking and utterly missing Weiss seeth as she glared at him for giving Tenten and Ruby an excuse to hang out more.

The heiress did NOT like how Ruby had seemingly pushed her aside in favor of the bunned brunette!

 **He had also realized that he hadn't really been using the weapon which was a shame seeing as he had went through the trouble of making it himself with Kurama's help.**

"Hello!" Naruto said, surprised.

 **Resolving to start using the shakujo more often, Naruto's normally bright blue eyes hardened and gained a frosty cold glint to them. He wanted Pyrrha to grow stronger just as much she herself did and to do that meant he couldn't fool around. No, he was going to put her through her paces and then some.**

Pyrrha smiled. That was just what she wanted.

"Going to need to pay attention to this." Ruby told her team, who nodded and focused more intently on what was being read and displayed.

 **With an unseen and unheard signal, the two were off in a burst of speed. Naruto, being far faster than Pyrrha, managed to cross more than half the field in the time it had taken her to cover a third of it and was already aiming a horizontal swing at her abdomen.**

 **Having sparred with her blond leader numerous times by this point, the young woman was more than prepared for this and brought up Akoúo just in time. What she wasn't prepared for was the amount of force behind the swing. Having Nora on her team, Pyrrha was no stranger to having to evade or defend against hits that could shatter concrete and dent steel. However the swing from Naruto had felt like she had just tried to stop a speeding train.**

"I call bologna to that! No way can he hit harder than me!" Nora objected.

Ren shushed her. Sure, RWBY finding out a stratigy for taking down JNPR's strongest because of this was bad, but with what he knew of Pyrrha's abilities and skill, and what he'd seen of Naruto's, this was going to be too good a fight to miss!

 **Needing time to reorient herself with the increased strength and come up with a battle plan, the redhead warrior attempted to give herself some breathing room by shoving Naruto and his shakujo aside with her shield. She followed this up by quickly shifting Miló into its rifle form and firing a succession of bullets aimed at the Kyūbi container's abdomen.**

 **Again Pyrrha was caught flat footed when, in a show of grace, Naruto easily spun out of the way of the bullets and shoved a palm into her sternum. Her mind had no time to comprehend what happened in the next few seconds and the next thing she knew was that she had a lovely view of the ceiling and was struggling to get air into her lungs.**

"Ceiling? Shouldn't in be sky? I mean, those moves he used on the pier are obviously outdoor use-only. Unless he's out to turn the school into a craitor..." Jaune said.

 **A minute or so later, and having finally managed to get some much needed oxygen into her system, the green eyed teen struggled to her feet, using Miló as a crutch.**

"Should have pressed that advantage rather than give recovery time..." Naruto mused.

 **"You wanted me to fight at the level I did on the pier. It's only gonna get harder from here on in," Naruto twirled his staff.**

 **Only now was Pyrrha realizing what she was up against. She always had an inkling that her whiskered captain was holding back in their fights and that he was far stronger than he let on. To be fair she wasn't going all out either, not having used her Semblance yet and it seemed that Naruto knew this and was hinting that to even pose a challenge, she would have to give it her all.**

"Which is just what I'm after, how can I get stronger without being made to push past my limits?" Pyrrha nodded. However, the trouble in that was finding an opponent that could do that who wasn't a fully-fledged Huntsman or Huntress, she was so skilled.

It SUCKED being "The Invincible Girl"! Especally with finding a good sparring partner!

 **Using her Aura to numb the pain until it was a dull throb, Pyrrha looked up with her light green eyes gaining their own edge to them. Smirking as the red head readied herself for another round, Naruto rushed to meet her, intent on making his partner take this seriously.**

 **Swinging his shakujo with an almost casual ease, the blond Uzumaki raised a brow as instead of blocking the strike with her shield, Pyrrha had instead opted to catch the blunt weapon with Miló in short sword form.**

 **Feeling Hi no Ishi suddenly gain what felt like several hundred pounds, Naruto realized too late what was happening and received Akoúo to the face for his troubles.**

"Ok, ow..." Naruto muttered.

 **Pyrrha expected to hear the harsh crack of bone breaking, but was instead met with a face full of smoke. Waving away the small grey cloud, the redhead was shocked to see a grinning Naruto casually twirling his staff, looking like he had never moved from his spot.**

"Thank you, Shadow Clones..." the reincarnation of Asura muttered.

 **Already knowing that his sparring partner would be extremely curious as to how he had managed to escape a hit that would have broken his jaw and nose, Naruto moulded his chakra into the needed form and without the need for seals, summoned a doppelgänger who stood at his side, the same grin stretching across its own whiskered cheeks.**

"Hey! You can make copies of yourself like Blake can?!"

Blake blinked. Judging from the fact that Pyrrha's shield had made physical contact with it, Naruto's clones were solid. She wondered how else his technique differed from her Semblance.

 **"This is my signature technique, Kage Bunshin no jutsu, which roughly translates to Shadow Clone technique. It lets me create as many copies of myself as I want and each is more than capable of dealing out some damage. But, they can only take a single hit before popping, which I still haven't figured out how to fix."**

"Technique was made for infiltration, son." Minato said.

"I know, but still nothing wrong with them being more durable. I mean, it's a waste of a powerful Jutsu. Making a physical clone with all the same abilities as the original using half of someone's power should be much more useful than a one-shot that is dispelled with even the slightest bit of damage." Naruto sighed.

The others from Konoha shared a look. Ok...good point.

 **While Naruto was no doubt leaving out a lot of the more technical aspects of the technique, Pyrrha understood the gist of it. Her captain could clone himself at will and, while highly brittle, they were armed with the same knowledge as the original. The only question now was how strong were they in comparison to their creator.**

 **Her analytical mind already racing, the young Huntress in training theorized that it was highly unlikely that they were just as strong as their creator, as not only would that defy at least ten different laws of nature and physics, but it would also be highly unfair.**

"'Defy at least ten different laws of nature and physics, but it would also be highly unfair'...ha! Welcome to ninja fighting, Pyrrha." Naruto snickered.

 **However Naruto had said that it was his signature technique which meant he no doubt could control how strong each copy was along with all of the other aspects of.**

"I wish." Naruto confessed to that.

 **In the end this just meant this spar was going to be a lot harder than she first thought.**

Pyrrha nodded, but wouldn't deny the thought thrilled her. This was what she wanted, after all. A fight that would push her to and beyond her limits.

 **Seeing as how Pyrrha had decided to start using her Semblance, and with the hardened glint in her eye, Naruto knew that he was about to find out how his friend had earned the title of "The Invincible Girl".**

 **Then again he wasn't called "Konoha's Most Surprising Ninja" for nothing either.**

Both Naruto and Pyrrha looked excited at that.

* * *

 **"Your Semblance is really impressive Naruto," Pyrrha said as she wiped her face of the dirt and grime that had been the result of her spar with her friend and captain.**

"Wait...where's the fight?!" Naruto said.

"Copout!" Yang cried.

"Boo!" Nora jeered.

 **The blond leader of NNPR only rose a brow, "Says the girl who can control metal."**

 **Having never seen his partner use her Semblance seriously, he had been surprised to find out that she could control it to a great enough degree that she could almost close the gap between them. If she wanted to slow him down all she had to do was make his weapon, kunai, or his other hidden ninja gear weigh a hundred pounds or more. If she needed to avoid a swing, she could just "push" him away by using the same method.**

 **She could even direct her own weapons with her control over Polarity and use Akoúo as a sort of heat seeking frisbee of death.**

 **In a world full of metal, Pyrrha's Semblance was almost unfairly powerful.**

"Which is why I trained so hard to control it to as well as I do...if something went wrong..." Pyrrha winced. She didn't need to finish.

 **But still even she had her limits.**

Team RWBY had all pulled their Scrolls out and started taking notes, making JNPR squak.

"What?! Not our faults Pyrrha's so damn tough that we need to take notes on her weaknesses!" Yang defended.

 **Naruto had found that the red headed warrior needed to "tag" the item she wanted to control either by touching it or having it be within a small area around herself, the latter being far more taxing as she needed to exert her Aura outwards which took quite a bit of concentration and effort.**

Pyrrha nodded.

 **The other problem was her Aura reserve. She didn't have an endless supply of the stuff and while running out of Aura could not cause one to collapse or even die, it did leave the user fatigued.**

"What...what?" Jaune cried.

 **Even still, Pyrrha seemed to know her limits very well and was good at planning out her moves, even in the heat of battle which combined with her own natural talent and skill and her almost hax level Semblance made for a rather deadly combination.**

 **"Fair enough, but I can't create an almost endless supply of corporeal clones or use wind as a weapon," the sweaty teen replied.**

"Eh...I'll give you that." Naruto confessed.

 **Naruto just childishly pouted and stuck his tongue out at her in reply, to which both had a good laugh at. As the sun slowly began its downward trek across the sky, there was a lapse of silence between the two, which neither seemed all that bothered by.**

 **Remembering that there was something that had been bothering her ever since the whole fiasco in the cafeteria and with the night on the pier adding onto it, Pyrrha decided to voice her concerns, "Hey, Naruto?" Hearing said blond offer a hum in confirmation, she continued, "What was Konoha like?"**

"Finally! Backstory!" Nora cheered.

 **Turning his gaze from the view, the displaced Shinobi seemed genuinely shocked that someone had asked about his home village. Seeing the look of surprise hurt the redhead, knowing that it meant he hadn't expected anyone to show interest in the place he was born, to show interest in his past and where he came from.**

"Not true!" Ruby cried, the other student-level Hunters and Huntresses nodded in agreement with her, it hurt thinking that their new friend hadn't expected anyone to show interest in his past and where he came from.

 **However that surprise shifted as ocean blue eyes turned back to gaze at the sunset as a fond smile stretched across whiskered cheeks, "It was a lot different from Vale. The village was surrounded by nature and there was never a lack of greenery, it wasn't called the Village Hidden in the Leaves for nothing after all. But my favorite spot in the village was the Hokage Monument, this huge mountain that overlooked Konoha and had the faces of each our leaders carved into. Whenever I needed somewhere to think I would climb up it and sit on our fourth leader's head, the Yondaime Hokage, who happened to be my father."**

 **Pyrrha found herself lost in the oceanic blue eyes of her friend as he described his home, but was pulled out of it when her interest was piqued upon hearing Naruto mention his parents, "Your dad was one of your village's leaders?"**

Minato chuckled sheepishly.

 **Having lost himself in memories, Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah he was. His name was Minato Namikaze."**

 **Having intended to get to know her friend and his past even more, Pyrrha was instead finding herself with even more questions than she had before.**

 **"But I thought your last name was Uzumaki?"**

 **Naruto frowned in thought, "It is. My dad made a name for himself by inventing two of our villages most powerful attacks and using them to wipe out a whole battalion of enemy forces which is one of the reasons he was chosen to be the Fourth. But, because of that he earned himself some enemies and the policies he was trying to implement as leader got him enemies in the village. When him and my mom died, everyone thought it was best I not keep the name Namikaze so I wouldn't have to worry about assassins or people trying to use me as a political pawn."**

Weiss nodded. Ok...that made sense, especially to her! She understood the reasoning for it completely. Being an heiress herself, she had to be aware of things like that.

 **Seeing as it was quite a bit of information to take in, Naruto paused and gave the redhead time to think and go over what she had just heard. He didn't mind telling her about his parentage due to the fact that the name Minato Namikaze and his feared reputation as the "Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō _(Yellow Flash of_ _Konoha)_ " meant nothing here. There was no Iwa or Kumo Nin who feared and hated him here in Remnant. There were no Nin period.**

"Except your other." Tenten pointed out to Naruto.

 **This also meant being the son of the infamous Yondaime meant just as little, which was fine with Naruto. He had grown up an orphan and even when he did find out who his dad was, it did nothing to change who he had come to be, a sentiment shared by those who truly cared for the blond Jinchūriki.**

 **Meanwhile Pyrrha was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that, by all rights, her whiskered leader was the closest thing his village had to royalty. Seeing how powerful he already was at seventeen, and having seen beforehand how charismatic and determined the young man was, she had no doubt Naruto had been poised to follow in his father's footsteps and take over as this, Hokage.**

"Fully agreed!" Minato laughed.

 **Wanting to shift the conversation from such a somber topic, Pyrrha decided to ask another question, "What about your mom?"**

 **Almost instantly the unnaturally, on him at least, serious look flipped and was replaced by a smile filled with warmth and eyes burning with fondness, "My mom was named Kushina Uzumaki. A lot of people say that while I look almost exactly like my dad, I got my personality from her. She had long fiery red hair, violet eyes, and well, people say she was one of the most beautiful women in our village."**

 ** _'Is that why he's always staring at my hair?'_ Pyrhha pondered. Naruto had thought he was being sneaky about it, but she would occasionally catch him gazing at her hair, especially when she wore it down. If he did it out of remembrance of his mother, who was apparently strikingly beautiful, it was a big compliment for her.**

Naruto went red again.

"Like father, like son!" Kushina laughed, delighted.

 **Nonetheless, it warmed her heart to see her friend look so happy at the memory of someone so undoubtedly wonderful. Really both of Naruto's parents sounded amazing - his father the powerful and no doubt charismatic leader and his mother, the beautiful and strong willed woman to compliment him. It was almost like a fairy tale with how perfect their family would have been.**

The mentioned family sighed.

"Obito..." Naruto growled, his fists clenching so hard his fists shook and his knuckles went white. Even if Obito had repented and given his life to make things right, it still hurt thinking about how life would have been if the Uchiha hadn't fucked up everything because he threw away having any and all faith in the world! Grief was one thing, but he took it WAY too far...

"Helps that the Uzumaki were one of those whom were the founders of Konoha, even the wife of our village's first head was from the Uzumaki, far as that "royalty" bit goes." Kushina said.

Weiss' jaw dropped. SAY WHAT?! Ok...that was interesting! To think Naruto...

Oh boy...Winter wasn't going to believe this!

 **"Enough about me though. What about you Pyrrha?"**

 **Said teen blushed upon realizing that she had been staring at Naruto's face, "Umm, what about me?"**

 **Shaking his head with a chuckle, the Kyūbi Jinchūriki replied, "Well what about your home? What was it like at Sanctum?"**

Pyrrha flinched. Oh boy...

 **The flinch that followed the last part of Naruto's question would have been missed by most people, but being a Shinobi and having had Konoha's greatest spymaster as his godfather and sensei had left the half blood Uzumaki with the skill to be able to pick out even the most suppressed of reactions.**

 **The need to push for answers never arose though, "Sanctum...wasn't...as enjoyable for me as it was for others." Seeing Naruto's raised brow and concerned eyes, Pyrrha mustered up the strength to continue, "I performed excellently in almost every area and well you know that I earned myself the title of 'The Invincible Girl' and while my family was proud it...it made it hard for me to find friends. Everybody either didn't talk to me because they thought I was too far out of their league or they wanted something from me, like I owed them something."**

 **"Well that's dumb."**

"HUH?!" Pyrrha cried.

 **That one simple phrase broke Pyrrha out of her sullen walk down memory lane. While she had long since come to terms with the hurdles placed in front of her due to her status and fame, she never thought she'd meet someone so unaffected by it. Weiss, the heiress to one of the most wealthy families in Vale and Remnant as a whole, had almost begged her just to be her partner on their first day at Beacon, because of her own reputation. Even Ren and Nora had seemed a little surprised to find out that they were on the same team as her.**

 **Naruto however simply didn't seem to care.**

Jaune nodded.

 **"Naruto..." She uttered.**

 **"I've never really cared for titles or all that other fancy crap. To me you're not 'The Invincible Girl' or whatever, you're Pyrrha Nikos, my friend and partner...who just happens to be really strong and beautiful."**

"Ok...can I just say I agree with other-Naruto about all that?" Jaune said.

Pyrrha felt dizzy with all the blood rushing to her cheeks with how much she was blushing.

 **As the last part of his little speech left his mouth, Naruto's eyes widened.**

 ** _'Shit, shit, shit! Damn you brain! Damn you red hair!'_**

"He's your son, all right!" Kushina laughed as Minato pat Naruto on the back, understanding that line of damning both his brain and how he acted around female redheads perfectly.

 **In that instant Pyrrha's face was lit by a blush dusting her cheeks. Being told she was beautiful was nothing new to her and Naruto had already let it slip once before and just like that time, it was the sincerity with which it was said that caused her to blush.**

 **Or maybe it was the entire moment. Here she was getting to know her partner and, now, closest friend in a way that she had never really been able to do with anyone outside of her family. It was almost surreal for her, finally getting what she had so longed for since her rise to fame. And with someone so...uniquely himself. While not normally a gambling person, the red haired beauty was willing to bet that there was no one like Naruto, as cheesy as that may sound.**

 **"Wait! We don't have a shipping name yet!"**

 **And with that, the hyperactive team member of team NNPR shattered both the awkward tension and the budding romantic one with ease by seating herself between her teammates with a look of deep concentration on her face.**

"Bad Nora! Bad, bad Nora!" Yang scolded.

"I'm sorry!" The hammer-user wailed.

 **"Nora! I told you to leave them alone!" Came the cry of the final member of team NNPR.**

"Thanks for at least trying to stop the human bulldozer." Kakashi told Ren.

Ren sighed. And calling Nora a bulldozer...that was oddly fitting.

 **"But Ren! We can't have a pairing without a proper shipping name!"**

"Must kill Nora...that's it, that's all there is it it..." Naruto muttered to himself under his breath, face in his hands.

 **While both Naruto and Pyrrha stared in shock and embarrassment, Ren simply sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Nora, what have I told you about that?"**

 **With a childish pout the eccentric teen replied, "To wait until they're an actual couple."**

"It's the most I can make her agree to, sorry guys..." Ren sighed.

"Thanks for that much at least." The other teens said to him.

 **Realizing that it was Nora, Naruto and Pyrrha recovered from their shock and began to laugh at the oddity that was their teammate. At the same time, the blond leader came to the conclusion that it had been awhile since they hung out as a team - as friends - and hailing from the ninja village that emphasized teamwork and camaraderie above all else, that was a no no.**

The readers from Konoha all nodded at that.

 **Standing to his feet, Naruto brushed off his pants and jacket, "Team! Seeing as it's Saturday and we've finished our work for the day, as your captain I declare today...a team bonding day!"**

"Team bonding days...we need to have those." Ruby said. The others from both RWBY and JNPR nodded. Sounded like a good idea.

 **Nora cheered at the declaration while both Ren and Pyrrha simply smiled, the red head's being more noticeable as she absentmindedly gazed at her friend.**

Pyrrha moaned. Make it stop!

 **That smile soon turned into giggling though as the blond Jinchūriki looked at their current attire. Both Ren and Nora were still in their school uniform, while he and Pyrrha were in their battle clothes and looked - and more than likely smelled - rather foul.**

 **"After a shower and change of clothes that is," Naruto chuckled.**

* * *

 **A freshly showered and casually dressed team NNPR made their way through the streets of Vale, the team laughing at the plight of their captain.**

 **"How does Vale seriously not have one damn ramen stand!?"**

"Criminal...just completely criminal!" Naruto muttered.

 **Garbed in a set of black jeans, a burnt orange shirt with the Uzumaki family crest emblazoned in black on the chest area, and his old Konoha headband tied loosely around his neck, Naruto childishly fumed at his so far futile attempts at finding a simple ramen stand.**

"Nice outfit, at least." Yang said.

 **"I don't think we'd find one in the shopping district, Naruto," a still chuckling Pyrrha responded. Dressed in a pair of form fitting blue jeans with a simple black top that bore her own unique symbol at the bottom left portion of it, and her crimson locks done up in a simple ponytail, the statuesque teen still managed to turn quite a number of heads, not that she was paying attention to that.**

Jaune blushed, muttering Pyrrha looked nice.

 **Prancing around in her pink skirt and white blouse with her insignia printed in a matching pink on her chest, Nora garnered her own fair share of stares, mostly due to the fact that despite her age she was acting like a five year old on a sugar high, seemingly ignorant to both the stares and her captain's plight.**

 **Ren, despite his friend dancing around singing something she referred to as the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and his leader whining like a spoiled child who didn't get the candy they wanted, seemed unsuitably at peace. He had likewise gone with the simple style of clothing his teammates had and was dressed in a pair of white jeans and a forest green hoodie, his flowery symbol stitched into the pouch of the thin clothing article.**

 **Finally deciding to give up on his search for his own personal ambrosia, again, Naruto sighed, "Well there goes my idea. Anyone got anything they wanna try?"**

 **No doubt wanting to give his childhood friend something to occupy her lest she cause some form of trouble, the long haired male spoke up, "There's a weapon's shop up ahead. We can see if there's anything interesting in there."**

"YES!" Ruby and Tenten both cheered, starry-eyed.

 **Seeing as how Beacon didn't provide its students with ammo or anything, the rest of the team agreed, needing to stock up on their own preferred ammo of choice.**

"They don't...that is a crime!" Tenten raged.

"I know!" Ruby moaned.

 **Despite the seemingly unassuming exterior, team NNPR were a little surprised to see that the interior of the store was tediously well kept and organized with a wealth of variety from the basic and mundane to the eccentric and expensive.**

Ruby was practically hyperventilating as she mumbling every name and specifications of the weapons she could see.

"I want to use that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that..." Tenten said eagerly, pointing out various weapons, her eyes shining with sheer _need_ at the sight of the weaponry.

 **"Welcome to Achievement Hunter's Weapon Shop! Anything that cuts, pierces - or my personal favorite - goes boom, we got it. My name's Jack, how can I help ya?"**

"Ruby...copy that weapon shop's name down for later...!" Tenten said urgently.

"Way ahead of you!" The younger Rose in the reading group said, furiously typing in her scroll with her thumbs.

 **Blinking at the the bearded man that stood in front of them, the four teens found themselves at a loss for words. His entrance and subsequent speech had come so abruptly that not even Nora knew how to respond to the situation. Of course that soon came to an end when the word "boom" clicked in the equally eccentric girl's mind and with a squeal she was gone, no doubt to get ammo for Magnahild.**

 **With a sigh Ren ventured off after her to make sure she didn't blow up the store or break anything that would end up costing him in the long run.**

Ren twitched. An unsupervised Nora in a weapons shop...yeah...that was scary!

 **Coming out of their own stupor, both Pyrrha and Naruto blinked, the blond speaking up, "Actually yeah, I was wondering if you guys had any of these."**

 **Reaching into the singular weapon's pouch, the only one that was visible at least, Naruto showed the store worker a spool of his ninja wire as well as a kunai and shuriken.**

 **Eyeing the odd choice of weaponry, the large man hummed in thought whilst rubbing his beard, "Well kid, I'll say this, you got an interesting taste in weapons. But like I said, if it's sharp and pointy, we carry it, so yeah we have a few packs of those shuriken and kunai. The wire on the other hand, I'm afraid that's not something we carry. I can check and see if we got anything similar though." Seeing Naruto's shrug, the apparent lover of all things explosive jerked a thumb to a shelf in a corner, "Well we got our kunai and shuriken over there so feel free to browse while I see what I can do."**

Naruto nodded. So ninja weaponry was uncommon on Remnant he figure as much. But they weren't impossible to find, just hard to.

 **Taking the shop worker's advice, Naruto made his way over to the shelf to see what they had while Pyrrha ventured off to see what else the store had to offer. On the way to the aisle the blond passed by another customer, but he was unable to see her face as her back was turned to him, though he was struck by a strange sense of familiarity as he glanced at the stranger's long raven locks and petite build.**

A loud smack was heard and the readers all turned to Naruto, who had his hand over his face as he shook it slowly. "You gotta be kidding..Please, don't tell me..." Naruto muttered.

 **The teen shinobi was tempted to simply brush the feeling off, but both Kurama and Jiraiya had drilled it into him to always trust his instincts, no matter how far fetched they may seem. As he browsed through the varying types of kunai the weapon's store had to offer and simultaneously kept an eye on the nearby stranger, Naruto wanted to bash his head in as the person turned and revealed a set of burning amber eyes.**

 **Browsing through a shelf full of various vials of basic Dust was the woman who was supposedly the real leader of Torchwick and his whole outfit.**

"Damn, I knew it..." Naruto moaned, wanting to bash his head against something.

 **The situation went even further downhill as the woman turned and, with wide eyes, stared straight at the frustrated teen.**

 ** _'What in the nine circles of hell did I do in a past life to deserve this Kami?'_**

"If it was for using chakra for combat purposes, that was _Indra's_ fault, not mine...!" the reincarnation of Asura hissed.

 **The booming laughter of Kurama echoed throughout the recesses of his mind, _'Hahaha! This is just priceless! Can we just kill her now? Pretty please?'_**

"You have a clear villain stalking you, one with an agenda that can and will most likely get innocent people killed, and a Tailed Beast wanting to take care of the problem..." Kakashi said in concern.

"That's a problem in and of itself. Too much crossfire and collateral damage..."

"This woman clearly took that into account and chose to confront you in a setting like that to ensure you couldn't just kill her off and stop her plots before they can even really happen."

"Huh?" Ruby asked, "What do you two mean?"

"Bad guy made it so I couldn't just blow them up to prevent them being able to do their evil scheme." Naruto translated.

Ruby went still, "...That witch! The bad guys are supposed to get beaten! Evil is weak! Hope, valor and justice shall prevail in the end!" she declared.

"I actually WANT my other and Kurama to kill her, too. She's just...the kind of person that would smile while stomping on the lives of others to get what she's after. Needs to die on principle of her being alive..." Naruto said.

"Naruto! How can you say that?!" Mikoto yelped, shocked.

"Easily; after all...I had to deal with the actual Madara. Can tell that woman is the exact same type he is." Naruto frowned.

Mikoto winced. Ok...Cinder deserved to die on principle.

 **The blond Jinchūriki was sorely tempted to say yes to his tenant, however the ensuing battle would more than likely leave the entirety of Vale's shopping district in shambles. Plus there was a high risk his team would try and get involved and he knew that they were no match for this woman who had managed to defeat both Ren and Nora with utter ease.**

The two old friends winced at that. True enough. It was class, not numbers that were needed to beat that woman. They wondered who could beat that monster-woman.

At their thought, back in Remnant, a black-haired woman with red eyes and red, samurai-like armor suddenly sneezed.

 **No, to defeat her he'd have to bring out the big guns and really let loose.**

 ** _'Spoil sport.'_**

 **Naruto was stopped from giving his furry partner a retort when the woman sauntered up to him with a sultry smirk stretching across her flawless face. The smoky voice that followed sounded almost like sex in verbal form, "I didn't think I'd run into you here of all places."**

"So says the stalker..." Blake frowned.

 **"Yeah, I didn't think a crime boss like you was one for shopping like normal people," Naruto bit back.**

 **The raven haired woman seemed unperturbed by this and just continued to gaze into his sapphire orbs with her own searing amber eyes, "The only crime boss is that buffoon Roman. Even then he's a poor excuse for one."**

"And yet, he works for you..." Mikoto frowned at the woman's image.

 **Before Naruto could reply, his Bijū decided to deliver some rather shocking news, _'Kit, wait! Remember how I said that there were only two negative auras that night?'_**

 ** _'Yeah, what of it?'_**

 **With a grim look stretched across his face, the fox dropped the bomb, _'She's not one of them.'_**

"Kill her anyways..." Naruto muttered.

 **The muscles in Naruto's jaw tightened visibly as he gazed down at the much smaller woman who seemed far too calm for the current situation. Meanwhile his mind raced as it tried to cope with the new information.**

 **Kurama's Negative Emotion sensing ability was never wrong, ever. There was no feasible way for even the other Tailed Beasts to trick it.**

Naruto snorted, "Oh please! Not to doubt Kurama, but if the author made someone that can qualify as a gender-bent Madara seem like an anti-villain, they need their head examined!"

 **"What's your game?" Naruto spoke at last in a tone that showed he wasn't in the mood for playing around.**

 **Again the woman seemed not at all bothered by the change in demeanor, only raising a singular brow, "You don't expect a woman to give away all her secrets to a random stranger, do you?"**

 **"It was worth a shot," Naruto admitted.**

 **"Well we don't have any of that wire, but...," Jack, the store worker took note of the situation and smiled, "Hey! I didn't know you knew this guy Cinder! Were you the one who told him about us?"**

 **The now named Cinder simply smirked and spoke without tearing her gaze away from Naruto's, "No. Unfortunately we were both a little...preoccupied during our last few meetings."**

"Yeah, and by "preoccupied", she means trying to kill each other." Blake scoff.

 **Oblivious to the tension of the moment, the bearded man shrugged, "Alright well I'm gonna go make sure that orange haired friend of yours doesn't break anything. I didn't like the way she was looking at some of our higher caliber explosive rounds."**

 **When he felt that Jack was sufficiently out of earshot, Naruto spoke, "Cinder?"**

 **"Cinder Fall," She replied a little too easily.**

 **"Uzumaki Naruto."**

 **This only seemed to make Cinder happier, "So my research was correct after all. You're a Shinobi."**

Everyone's eyes widened. How did she...?!

 **Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously, "How the heck do you know that?"**

 **He wasn't so much worried about her, or anyone for that matter, knowing about his previous occupation, but he had thought that there would be no other way for people to find out unless he personally revealed it to them. Apparently he had been wrong.**

 **"It was a lot harder to find than you'd think, but the way you said your name confirmed my suspicions. I had to dig through countless ages old tomes that dated back to before even the discovery of Dust and the apparent birth of Grimm. But in one ancient scroll I found a passage that spoke of a people who could do the impossible - defy gravity by walking up walls, walk on water as if it were solid ground, and even command the very elements themselves. They were called Shinobi and used something called Chakra to perform all of these almost God like feats."**

 ** _'Wait, if what she says is true then...'_**

 ** _'Your silver haired sensei's Sharingan didn't send us to a different dimension, it sent us into the future, the far future.'_**

"SAY WHAT?!" everyone cried.

"But...the Kamui jutsu didn't..." Kakashi sputtered.

"...Seems things are altered in the universe for the book..." Minato frowned thoughtfully.

 **Not allowing the shock to show on his face, Naruto spoke, "And why go through all the trouble? So you can find my weakness?"**

 **Almost instantly Cinder's smirk fell, replaced by a decidedly much more serious look, "No. I admit I was highly intrigued by your attacks as well as the fact that you called out your attacks in what most would consider a dead language. However what I want most is for you to join me and to that end I wanted know as much as I could about you and your powers."**

"Not liking that..." Mikoto frowned.

 **At hearing the possible villainess' want for him to help her, a single blond brow was raised, "You want me to help you? Regardless of your relationship with that creep Torchwick, I'm not so easily inclined to believe you're up to anything good."**

"Shouldn't believe that at all." Ruby frowned.

 **That sultry smirk once more found its place on the raven haired woman's face, "That's not something we can exactly discuss here, but soon we will. Until then, just think about my offer."**

 **Blue orbs watched as the petite woman calmly, and enticingly, strutted out of the shop.**

 ** _'Kurama?'_**

 ** _'Yeah, Kit?'_**

 ** _'What do you think?'_**

 **The massive chakra construct offered a mental shrug, _'Well she doesn't have that red hair you like so much, but she seems like she'd offer a good romp in the-'_**

 ** _'NOT IN THAT WAY BAKA-KITSUNE!'_**

"Perverted hairball..." Weiss muttered, the faces of the females all red, while the males all rubbed their eyes in irritation.

 **Once again the sounds of laughter reverberated throughout the halls of Naruto's mind, _'Hahaha! Priceless.'_ Once the Kitsune allowed his last vestiges of laughs to pass, he took on a much more serious demeanor, _'But in all honesty I'm not too sure. We still don't know enough about our own situation here to really be able to just jump into anything. The only things we can be for sure about now are; she's got some hidden agenda, but isn't necessarily evil, we're more than likely a few dozen millennia in the future - not a different dimension like we thought, and there's something going on here that only a select few are privy to.'_**

 **Raking a hand through his blond locks, Naruto sighed, _'So pretty much the standard stuff, huh?'_**

"The more things change, the more they stay the same...I swear..." Naruto muttered.

"And we're gonna get sucked into the middle, aren't we?" Ren sighed.

"Sorry guys..." Naruto winced.

"Eh, don't worry about it, Foxy. Our luck, would have gotten wrapped up in things anyways." Yang shrugged.

 **Seeing the worn out expression on his container's face, Kurama decided to offer some good news, _'At least this way we can find out what happened after that scarecrow sensei of yours pulled off that Kamui_ (Authority of the Gods) _. If that woman could find old scrolls detailing the Shinobi, there's bound to be others laying around with more specific info on those events.'_**

 **Looking many years older than anybody his age had a right to be, Naruto allowed his eyes to crinkle as he offered a small smile at his tenant's words, _'That's true. And at least we now know for sure that whatever Akatsuki_ (Dawn/Daybreak) _had planned with the Bijū failed without us there.'_**

"Thank god for that silver lining..." Naruto muttered.

 **The blond Uzumaki was torn from his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he was a little surprised to see the concerned looks of his teammates.**

 **"Are you ok Naruto?" Pyrrha asked, having been the one to put her hand on his shoulder.**

 **Looking at the genuinely concerned looks of his team, his friends, Naruto shook his head and gave a off a bright smile, "Yeah I'm fine guys! So what'd you find?"**

"Lier." Blake said.

Hey, I have a lot going on to deal with and don't want to trouble you guys with it." Naruto defended.

"Understandable." Summer nodded. Then frowned as she looked at the book, "this chapter's over."

"That was actually short." Yang frowned.

"Summer, care to read the next chapter to make up for it, then?" Kushina asked.

The white-cloaked woman nodded.


	11. Chapter 11

"Last chapter before a break?" Summer asked.

Everyone nodded at that. Sounded like a good idea.

Grinning, Tenten took the book and started reading.

 **"So you're telling me that this little slip of paper is capable of holding all of this?" The bearded store owner known as Jack stared incredulously at the unfurled scroll that lay before him.**

The readers, realizing what was happening, all smirked. Oh...if that Jack guy only knew!

 **Team NNPR had purchased far more ammo and Dust than they had really planned for and they had no way to carry it all back with them to Beacon. Luckily for the teens, Naruto was well versed in the creation of storage seals and usually kept anywhere from five to twelve empty storage scrolls on him for just such an occasion.**

The ninjas all looked smug.

 **Of course the large man that was apparently one of the many co-owners of Achievement Hunters' Weapon Shop was skeptical of a simple scroll's ability to carry what amounted to about a hundred or so pounds of ammunition.**

 **Really anyone would be highly skeptical if they were told a scroll could hold such a hefty load, more so if they were told that the unassuming piece of paper was capable of doing so thanks to the writing on it bending time and space to create a pocket dimension where the items in question would be kept.**

"...Can you teach me that?" Weiss asked, not bothering to hide her interest in the prospect.

 ** _'Fūinjutsu is so cool, -ttebayo,'_ Naruto thought to himself with a grin as he finished placing each of his teammates respective rounds in their own pile on top of the scroll.**

 **Placing his hands on the scroll, the Jinchūriki pumped a small amount of chakra into each of the sealing matrices inscribed into the paper and in a puff of white smoke the items were gone, leaving only the scroll laying on the floor and a flabbergasted Jack.**

 **"Well...now I think I've seen it all. That's a pretty neat trick kid," the bearded man praised. "Those would be extremely useful to have around the shop."**

The readers all nodded.

 **Naruto began to roll up the scroll, "Actually I've been working on a version of these that others besides me would be capable of using. I have a prototype with me, but haven't had the chance to really try it out."**

 **This seemed to make Jack extremely happy, "Well no time like the present right? Bust it out blondie!"**

Weiss nodded, understanding why Jack was so eager.

 **Naruto grimaced. In truth he really had been working on a version of the basic storage seals that could be activated by Aura users so that he could give a scroll or two to his teammates for them to use. The only problem was figuring out how to compensate for the difference between Chakra and Aura. The two energy sources were similar yet so different.**

Everyone looked interested in this topic being explained.

 **Chakra was comprised of both Yin and Yang, the physical aspect from the body and the spiritual aspect from the mind. It was literally someone's life force which is why chakra exhaustion left its victims in a bedridden state and why it was also possible for someone to die if they used up all their chakra. Aura on the other hand was...well Naruto really didn't know for sure. He and Kurama had theorized that the people of Remnant had somehow had their chakra separated, their spiritual aspect giving birth to Semblances and their physical half becoming what was known as Aura.**

"Whoa..." Jaune said, shocked, as were the others from Remnant.

"Is something like that even possible?" Kasashi wondered, frowning under his mask

 **This meant that they could freely use up either of the two without worrying about little more than fatigue. Really the only way it would be possible for someone to die from overusing their energy would be if they used their Semblance and Aura simultaneously till there was nothing left.**

 **Still the unique situation this presented for Naruto and his seals was trying to figure out how to get the matrix to respond to just the physical aspect of chakra which involved having to tear apart and scrutinize every single minute detail of the entire seal and, in an art where even the smallest mistake could be costly, this wasn't an easy task.**

Weiss nodded at the delicate intricacy required of the process. She understood and respected that quite well.

 **However the prototype he had on him had been tested quite a number of times and the success rate was pretty high...at least with Naruto doing it. He had yet to actually have an Aura user try it out.**

 **Throwing caution to the wind, Naruto nodded as reached into his pouch, "Well alright, guess it's time to see if it works."**

 **Tapping one of the many tiny storage seals that lay inside his weapon's pouch, the blond pulled out a plain looking scroll that seemed to have the same exact markings as the one it's creator had just used. Of course it looked that way to the untrained eye. A seals master would be able to easily see just how many alterations had been made to the core of the seals.**

Weiss looked awed at that. As a glyph user, she could appreciate the sheer level of time and effort deconstructing that seal and rewriting what energy it responded to must have taken.

She beamed. Impressive!

 **With the unassuming scroll laid flat on the counter, Jack grabbed what looked to be a standard sword. Then again this was Remnant so it was more than likely also a gun or something. Laying it on top of one of the marked areas, Naruto instructed the bearded man to place his hands on the scroll and pour a small amount of his Aura into the paper.**

 **Everyone watched with baited breath as Jack followed the teen's instructions to the letter. The black ink that made up the actual seal glowed a faint blue for a second before there was a poof of smoke that obscured their vision. Waving their hands, they managed to clear away the small cloud and saw that where there was once a sword, there was only the scroll, now with some writing below the seal, no doubt indicating that there was something in it.**

"Score!" Ruby cheered! Oh...thinking of all the weapons and ammo she could carry got her excited!

"Looks like we're in business." Naruto grinned.

 **"Kid...if you supply me with these I'd be more than happy to keep you and your friends well stocked on any kind of ammo you may want," said a grinning Jack. You could almost see the gears in his mind turning as it went through the possibilities this presented for him and the business.**

Ruby squealed in sheer joy! "Stocked on ANY kind of ammo we want?!"

Tenten shot a beaming smile at Naruto, "Naruto...you beautiful little bastard you! Practically free weapons and ammo...I swear I'm tempted to kiss you!"

Naruto looked nervous as he leaned away from the two weapon-loving girls, much to the amusement of the others in the reading group, even as Blake took the book and located where Tenten's love of weapons caused her to stop.

 **Normally this would be next to impossible as drawing even a single storage seal took an hour to do and a whole scroll of them took almost half a day to make. However Naruto was more than happy to abuse the Kage Bunshin jutsu for this as it was a rather lucrative deal. That and he had used the technique for a lot less before.**

Minato, Kushina, Kakashi, and Mikoto all gave Naruto pointed looks, brows raised as he looked sheepish. More than happy to abuse the jutsu, huh?

 **Seeing as how there was little to no chance he'd ever be able to return "home", what with it being a couple centuries in the past, Naruto decided that this would be a good way to start earning some much needed income. The warrior lifestyle, be it that of a Shinobi or Huntsman, was not as well paying as most would think so a lot of them would seek out other areas to supplement that income.**

Naruto's parents and Weiss all nodded. That was easy to see.

 **Jiraiya had his books, his parents had invested in various businesses both in and out of Konoha, and the various Ninja Clans in Konoha used their Kekkai Genkai or expertise in an area to run their own businesses.**

 **Being an accomplished Fūinjutsu practitioner and multi-tasker with no compare, Naruto saw the opportunity to start making his own business ventures here in his new home of Vale. With a wide grin, Naruto reached into his weapon's pouch, "You said you like anything that goes boom, right?" Jack's own grin was almost as mischievous as the blond's. Almost. "I think you're gonna like this. Got any place where I can show you without having to worry about collateral?"**

"This'll be good!" Kushina snickered.

 **The bearded man motioned for the four teens to follow him, leading them behind the counter and into the back room of the shop which was a huge departure from the tidy look of the actual store itself. Weapon's were strewn everywhere and team NNPR had the slightest inkling that touching anything could lead to half of Vale being wiped off the map.**

 **"Hey guys! Get over here!"**

 **Jack's call was answered by several more.**

 **"The hell do you want Jack!?"**

 **"Damnit Jack! You almost blew us all to hell!"**

 **"Oh anus!"**

 **The last shout was shortly followed by a minor explosion that caused several nearby weapons to fall off their shelves.**

"These guy'll be fun! I can just tell!" Nora laughed.

Ren paled, "fun" by Nora's standards meant lots of property damage!

 **Coming out of the cloud of smoke was possibly one of the motliest looking groups of guys that the teens had ever seen. With so many varying looks, the group looked like they shouldn't be friends let alone have met with each other in any point of time.**

 **Jack turned to team NNPR and began introductions, "Kiddies, meet the rest of the Achievement Hunters."**

 **"Geoff," a man with tattoos covering both his arms and hands with what looked to be a frazzled version of a handlebar mustache waved and nodded at them.**

 **"How's it going?"**

 **"Michael," one of the shorter members of the group stood with a beanie on his head and nodded at them.**

 **"Sup bitches."**

 **"Ryan," a tall and rather intimidating looking man looked down at them and extended a hand for a handshake, which Naruto took.**

 **"Hey guys."**

 **For a moment team NNPR did a double take, astounded at how eerily similar the man sounded to Jack which had most of the group laughing.**

 **"Ray," a darker skinned male with a curly mop of hair and glasses waved at the teens.**

 **"Yo."**

 **"And I'm Gavin!" Came the foreign accent of the last male who looked rather lanky.**

 **Jack didn't seem to be too happy about the interruption though and yelled, "Damnit Gavin! We had a thing going and you messed it up!"**

 **"Son of a bitch Gavin! Can't you be professional for like two seconds!?" Michael snarked.**

Weiss sighed and nodded at Jack and Michael's words, there were times she couldn't help but feel that way about Ruby. Of course the white-themed girl knew Ruby could be professional, but still...

 **As the group of grown men descended into mindless cursing and name calling, the four teens of team NNPR could only look on in awkwardness. The insults being hurled around would have caused most people to burst into tears or actually end the friendship, yet from the little smiles and smirks on their faces it looked like this was normal for the store owners. It almost seemed like this was how they bonded, through scathing insults and harsh language.**

"What are they, sailors?" Yang asked, even though she was grinning. These guys sounded fun to her!

 **Coughing into his fist, Naruto managed to regain the attention of the men, none of whom seemed at all embarrassed by their previous actions.**

 **"So why'd you bring the kiddies back here for?" Michael asked as he eyed the four teens.**

 **With a grin hidden behind all of his facial hair, Jack just motioned for Naruto to show them. With a shrug the blond nin grabbed a nearby spear and performed one of the most basic of the Shinobi arts, shocking those who hadn't seen it before.**

 **The first to respond was the heavily tattooed Geoff, "Holy shit kid! Can you recall it as well?"**

 **Without even a word, Naruto pumped a minuscule amount of chakra into the seal and after the ensuing puff of smoke was gone, revealed the formerly sealed spear to be in his hands.**

"...Can you do that?" Ruby asked Tenten.

"Duh! It's pretty much my signature skill, I have so many weapons!" The brunette grinned, "And if we can figure out those aura scrolls. Willing to see about teaching it to you, if you want."

Ruby pumped her fist in excitement. Tenten was awesome! Ruby felt she really owed Naruto for introducing them to one another!

 **Still widely grinning Jack continued, "Blondie agreed that as long as we keep him and the rest of his team here well stocked on ammo, he'd be willing to supply us with some of these nifty scrolls for our own use."**

 **"Huh, so we can finally clean up this place then?" the dark skinned Ray noted as he caught on to Jack's idea.**

 **"I wouldn't mind. It's a bloody mess back here," Gavin chuckled.**

 **Ryan interjected, "Gavin, most of this mess is your fault so you shouldn't be talking."**

 **"Yeah Gavin, you're the one always blowing shit up," Michael joined in with a smirk.**

 **Knowing that with another word, the grown men could descend back into yet another squabble, Naruto chose to interrupt them yet again, "There's also something else I think you guys would be interested in. I just need some place that where you don't care about collateral."**

 **Hearing his last sentence, Gavin turned to Ray and grinned, "Bunker?"**

 **Chuckling Ray nodded, "Bunker."**

"This should be good!" Yang smirked as Nora rubbed her hand together with a manichal laugh

 **"X-Ray and Vav away!" The two shouted as they hurried behind one of the massive piles of weaponry.**

 **Following at a much slower pace, the rest of the AH crew took the time to explain to the no doubt highly confused teens, Geoff showing himself to be somewhat more of a leader than the others, "Gavin and Ray like to test out a lot of the more dangerous stuff as a team so they made themselves what they call the 'Bunker'. It's their personal little testing area and if it can handle all of their fuck ups, it should have no problem handling what you have to show us."**

 **"What about the whole 'X-Ray and Vav' thing?" Naruto asked out of curiosity.**

 ** _'I don't care what you say, the minute they try and pull something like that horrendous 'Sunset of Youth' I will erase them from existence,'_ Kurama growled out.**

 **Memories of a certain pair of "Green Beasts" resurfacing, the fox's Jinchūriki was hard pressed to argue. No one should ever have to endure the horrifyingly scarring experience that was the feared by even the most hardened of criminals.**

"Here here!" Tenten agreed, shuddering. She'd been exposed to it nearly every day! The horrors of the Fourth Ninja War were a cakewalk compared to that!

 **The mustached somewhat leader shrugged, "I dunno. You'd have to ask them about that one."**

 **Turning around the same corner the two eager co-owners had, team NNPR could only stare in appreciation at the veritable armory before them. Sure the store itself and the back room could more than easily supply a whole militia, but somehow Gavin and Ray had managed to construct their own workshop within the already existing one that held almost as much weaponry. How the two had managed to fit so much in what looked to be a simple fallout bunker was mind boggling.**

 **The two then lead the group to a much smaller room that would only fit no more than five people at a time, a thick steel door with a glass viewing window cutting it off from the rest of the Bunker.**

 **Figuring that this was the "blast room" where the more explosive items were tested, Naruto walked in and pulled out a small slip of paper from his weapon's pouch. Laying it in the middle of the floor, the blond rejoined the others as Gavin and Ray sealed the door.**

 **"The fuck is that little slip of paper gonna do?" Michael asked as he stared into the room incredulously.**

"Wait for it..." Nora said. She figured the whiskered teen's counterpart in the story wouldn't need blast room if what he had in mind wasn't going to be worth it.

 **Of course while no else had said it, it was quite clear from the looks on their faces that everyone, even Naruto's own teammates, agreed with the vulgar statement and were skeptical of how much damage a simple piece of paper could do. Of course they didn't know that Fūinjutsu was an art limited only by one's own imagination. Masters of the art could do anything from sealing the soul and power of the strongest portion of a primordial god into a baby or even bend the very fabric of space and time to their will. Using a slip of paper to do something as simple as causing an explosion was child's play for even a novice.**

"Ok...now I REALLY want to see if this Fūinjutsu stuff can work with my glyphs..." Weiss said, wide eyed.

 **Forming the necessary hand seal, Naruto smirked as he muttered, "Baku _(Explode)_."**

 **The ensuing explosion rocked the entire store and engulfed the blast room in a storm of flames and concussive air as it pushed against its confinement seeking to escape and unleash further destruction. It seemed that Gavin and Ray had really built the place as a bunker though and so the walls and doors stood strong, keeping the conflagration within its four walls.**

 **With a massive grin stretching across his face, Geoff turned to look at a mischievously smirking Naruto, "Blondie...this is gonna be the start of a beautiful partnership."**

Naruto smirked.

* * *

 **Following team NNPR's run into the group known as the Achievement Hunters and Naruto's subsequent business dealings with them that would ensure he and his teammates would never have to worry about ammunition or weapon repairs while also leaving the blond Uzumaki with a small stake in the store, the four teens had decided to do something that didn't have something to do with their profession.**

 **Nora had spotted a warehouse that hosted games of Laser Tag as well as various other activities and enthusiastically voted that that be their next stop...which meant she ran into the building before anyone could stop her.**

"What? I like Laser Tag." Nora defended.

 **What began as a casual game between friends quickly escalated into a heated free for all with the teens eventually using their Semblances and battle prowess in an attempt to claim victory.**

"This outta be good!" Yang snickered.

 **Needless to say, the children who had reserved the room after the four were awed as they saw Ren performing acrobatic feats to reach the higher floor where Nora was camping, aiming several decisive hits with his "gun" that left a pouting hammer wielder out of the game.**

Nora likewise pouted, "I thought we were friends, Ren!"

 **Their jaws lowered even further as Naruto dropped from the ceiling behind Ren and fired off several shots his teammate's exposed back, disqualifying the reserved male.**

"Ha! Take that, Ren! Karma!" Nora cheered.

Ren sighed, shaking his head, a small, hapless smile on his face.

 **The duel between Pyrrha and Naruto went even further, the redhead using her control over polarity in an attempt to move her friend into the line of fire while the blond in turn used his own control over wind to do the same.**

"So that makes it about even, then." Ren nodded, amused.

 **The adolescent onlookers cheered loudly as the two partners matched each other move for move, Naruto using his training as a Shinobi of Konoha to perform wild feats of stealth and acrobatics, bouncing from floor to floor and using guerrilla warfare tactics to score hits while Pyrrha used her superior skill as a marksman to keep pace and score her own hits.**

 **Eventually it came down to both having only one "HP" left on their electronic vests, the blond captain hidden behind a wall on the highest floor while Pyrrha panted behind her own cover on the lowest floor. The normally hyperactive children watched with bated breath, waiting to see which of their newest idols would be crowned as champion of laser tag.**

 **With an unseen and unheard signal, Naruto dashed from his cover, weaving between pillars, walls, and the other constructs that dotted the arena, Pyrrha's laser being only centimeters off their target as he did so. When the blond disappeared into the darkness that coated the arena in most areas, the Greek themed warrior hid herself in a small alcove, her weapon trained on the only entrance.**

"Sorry Pyrrha...nice tactic, but wrong opponent to use it on." Naruto said, trying not to snicker.

 **To her shock and awe, a swirl of leaves appeared right beside her, and out of the small flurry of greenery came her friend, plastic laser gun already firing off a shot that robbed her of her last glowing bar of health.**

Pyrrha sighed, but smiled and gave a small applause. Naruto had won that round. And to be honest, she respected the Uzumaki male, anyways. Not only did Naruto see her as being the same as everyone else, but comparing the two's skills, she was actually seen as normal to the point of boring. She found she envied her other seeming that way, but that was Pyrrha's desire to step off the pedestal and be treated as an ordinary person talking.

 **With a grin on his face, Naruto offered a hand to the crouched Pyrrha, who took it with a smile and laugh. The two shared a good natured congratulations before their attention was drawn to the loud cheers and hollers coming from the viewing area. So into their own world the partners had failed to realize that they had attracted themselves an audience. Still they took into stride and waved at the crowd of adolescents.**

 **As the team or four walked out of the arena with waters in hand, Nora was the one to voice the question on the others' minds, "What was that cool swirly thingy you did Naruto!? It was like 'whoosh!' and you disappeared! Were you lying!? Are you really a magician!?"**

 **Ok so not exactly the way most would have put it, but the point still stood.**

Everyone chuckled or giggled at that, but they got Nora's point.

 **The blond captain was growing even more accustomed to his quirky teammate and was unfazed by the phrasing, "It's actually a pretty standard teleportation jutsu that almost all of my village learned. I know other villages also had their own variations that used their namesakes instead of Konoha's leaves."**

 **Ren seemed off put by the idea that such an impressive technique was regarded as simple, "How come such a technique did not become more well known and feared?"**

 **It was a valid question for the most part. A teleportation skill that anyone could learn? The uses were endless and would no doubt give rise to a whole new style of battle. The blond instead shrugged, "It was used more often to just move around quicker within the village and because of all of the limitations, it just wasn't really a viable technique that could be used in battle."**

 ** _'Though I do remember hearing that one of Sasuke's family members had figured out how to do it. Stupid Uchihas and their Sharingan,'_ Naruto pouted to himself. **

"Present company excluded, of course!" Naruto quickly said to Mikoto.

Said Uchiha woman rolled her eyes at the attempt at damage control, "Relax Naruto...people always complained about that anyways in regards to the Uchiha clan's dōjutsu. And it all honesty, most Uchiha took it as a compliment."

"Even the Rinnegan being just another level the Sharingan can get?" the young man asked with a deadpan expression.

Mikoto shrugged, "I wasn't who decided the rules for that, so I'm not sure how I can explain it. But for what it's worth, I always felt that if it had only been the three stages of beginner, intermediate, and expert with a tomoe in the eye for each stage marking to show the eyes' progression and giving a photographic memory as well as increased reaction time, also allowing to see much quicker than normal, that would have been enough. Mangekyou and **onward**...I admit our ocular powers are broken."

Naruto stared at her, blinking a few times, "...Itachi is definitely your kid..." the whiskered boy said at last, finding that if the black-winged guardian angel of Konoha taking after his mother in terms of character, it made perfect sense. Certainly explained his humility, at least.

Mikoto stared, a light, flattered blush on her face.

 **Really the shinobi from the past had all reason to be jealous. There had only ever been two weaponized teleportation jutsu, that he knew of, and besides the Uchiha whose name he forgot, his father was the only user of one.**

"Shisui." Mikoto provided.

"Yeesh...all these things these ninjas can do makes me jealous." Yang pouted, everyone else from Remnant nodding in agreement.

 **Deciding to leave his childish dissatisfaction concerning his former teammate's Kekkai Genkai, Naruto realized that he and his team had been in the laser tag arena for quite some time, the lamp posts now illuminating the streets of Vale.**

 **The events of the day seemed to hit the four teens all at once, team NNPR all yawning in sync as their eyes drooped and their posture slackened. Nora was hunched over and Naruto was only somewhat worried that she would collapse and start snoozing right there on the sidewalk.**

Ren nodded, that had happened before. And the subsequent freak-outs after Nora woke up and assumed she'd been abducted were dangerous, especially with her hammer near by...

 **Another yawn hit the half blood Uzumaki, "Well time, guess we should call it a night."**

 **"Bed, Nora is coming!" the eccentric young woman called out whilst pointing skyward...before she collapsed onto Ren's back and began snoring away. To his credit the reserved male seemed unfazed by this and merely tightened his hold on his friend before following Naruto and Pyrrha.**

 **When Nora began to drool with said liquid coating his shoulder, he made no move to stop her, simply taking it in stride.**

 **' _Guess I'm washing this sweater after all.'_**

 **Just another day in the life of Lie Ren really.**

Ren sighed.

* * *

 **As team NNPR sleepily made their way to their room, a voice from behind stopped them in their tracks, "Mr. Uzumaki, glad to see you and your team returning back safely."**

 **Almost instantly the team, at least the three that were still awake, straightened up and stood at attention seeing as how it was their Headmaster who was addressing them.**

"...I don't like this...why was he waiting for them like that, especially for that long?" Minato frowned.

 **"Yes sir, we were just heading to bed now," Naruto spoke, trying his hardest to not let a yawn escape.**

 **Nora, even asleep, had perfect timing and decided to let out an especially loud snore, unknowingly driving her captain's point home. While her teammates sweatdropped at this, Ozpin let a small smile slip across his face. It made him genuinely happy to see his students act their age. There had always been a push from some council members to implement a much harsher regiment to "better prepare the kids for their career" and he had always been heatedly against such a decision and seeing as how he had several decades as an experienced Hunstman under his belt as well as the political backing to go with his position as Headmaster of Beacon, those voicing such an opinion often found themselves on the losing side of the debate.**

Minato nodded. He understood Ozpin's point about all that.

 **And it was scenes like this that made it all worth it to the silver haired Headmaster. He would gladly put up with the obnoxiousness that most of the other councilmen boasted if it meant he could let his student's have moments like this. Still there was a time and place for it, and right now he had more pressing matters to deal with.**

"...I don't like that..." Kakashi muttered.

 **"While I'm glad to see you all had fun while out in Vale, I must ask that your captain follow me to my office. There are some things I wish to discuss with him." Seeing the longing look said team leader cast towards the door that stood between him and sleep, Ozpin smirked, "Fret not Mr. Uzumaki, our chat will not take long. You will have more than enough time to get a good night's sleep."**

 **With a resigned sigh, Naruto waved to his team and began to follow the Headmaster's sedate pace. Normally he would be going over everything he had done in the past few days trying to figure out just why he was being asked to talk to Ozpin personally, but his sleep addled mind was far from being capable of that kind of work. Just cause he had an inhuman amount of stamina didn't mean he couldn't feel sleepy, especially after a long day.**

Naruto nodded at that.

 **His spar/training session with Pyrrha had gotten him going and then his run in with Cinder left him with so many questions and then there were the dealings he had to hash out with the Achievement Hunters followed by that intense game of laser tag. Yeah, Naruto was ready for bed.**

 **That in mind, the blond shinobi was relieved when the imposing structure of Ozpin's office came into view. Taking a seat opposite to the older male, Naruto waited to see just what this was all about.**

 **"Seeing as how late it is and how long of a day you must have had, I'll get to the point. After reviewing both your own performance and the performance of your teammates, as both individuals and as a cohesive unit, myself and several other professors have seen fit to do something we normally don't do. As of this moment, Team NNPR is being pulled into the active duty roster."**

"WHAT?!" Everyone in the reading group cried.

 **Naruto sat and stared blanky at his technical commander, not saying a word. Any form of fatigue or sleepiness that had clouded his mind had been blown away by the gravity of the situation. He knew that as he had become more at ease with his situation he had been showing more and more of his true potential. Thanks to this his team had tried to keep stride and he knew that outside of their team training days, the others were working their respective asses off to not "drag him down" as it were and in doing so they had earned themselves the top spot in the first year class' ranking, team RWBY trailing behind them. But to hear that they had apparently been performing so well that they were being pulled into the active duty roster, something that didn't happen until a month or so into their second year, was mind boggling.**

"Ok...yikes..." Yang muttered.

"I'm not sure if I should feel envious or not..." Weiss admitted.

 **"Not that I'm not extremely happy to hear that my team has apparently done so well as to warrant your attention, but why? I find it hard to believe that a still freshly inducted team of first years is being pulled onto the field so soon," Naruto spoke in a no nonsense tone. As a Shinobi, he knew that information could mean life or death for people in their profession, despite the change in who or what they were battling. He was not about to put his team, his friends', lives on the line without knowing the whys and hows.**

"Damn right I'm not." Naruto frowned, earning smiles sent his way by the other members of the reading group.

 **"You are right to be wary of this. Unfortunately I must admit that the call was not one made solely by myself or my colleagues here at Beacon. The...order came from even above me," Ozpin grudgingly admitted. He seemed especially displeased to have to do this.**

 **Of course Naruto had dealt with his own council and was used to getting screwed over by them so he knew that it was Vale's council who had called for this move without the silver haired Huntsman having to even say anything. The only question was why they were pushing for this.**

"...I swear, I HATE councils...!" Naruto complained.

Minato groaned in agreement.

"Same, but my reason has yours beat." Mikoto said icily, seeing as it was the actions of the council, specifically Danzo, Koharu, and Homura, that had lead to the Uchiha feeling the need to attempt a coup, and the following events with her eldest son killing the Uchiha and her youngest becoming so consumed with hatred that he became an international criminal.

 **"Why us specifically?"**

 **Taking a sip from his mug to calm his mind, Ozpin replied, "Vale is in a precarious position right now. Despite how well we seem to be doing, there is always the worry of the things that wish to see us buried and gone, both non-human and human. The human aspect has become especially worrisome with the White Fang's recent actions and that problem is only being compounded by Roman Torchwick's rash of thefts. Add to that the fact that the man has evaded all our attempts at apprehending him, well most of our council is more than worried."**

 **Seeing where this was going already, Naruto picked up from where the Headmaster left off, "And because of what happened on the docks a few nights ago, the council is having us, more specifically me, put on the spot because we were the only ones to get anywhere close to catching him."**

 **Ozpin only nodded, happy to see that the blond was not just going to leap into the unknown without having some knowledge beforehand. Seeing the calculative look on whiskered cheeks, the elder male had to pat himself on the back for making the young Uzumaki leader of team NNPR. He was clearly weighing all the pro's and con's, not willing to lead his team on what could very well be a suicide mission.**

"And we deeply appreciate that." Pyrrha said, getting nods from her team, save Jaune seeing as he wasn't there. That wasn't to say he didn't understand and respect that about his fellow male blond, however.

 ** _'First mission actual mission as a Genin and it ends up being an A-rank and I end up almost dying and manage to somehow liberate a small nation from the death grip of a grubby little tyrant. First month of being at Beacon and I somehow manage to get the attention of some crazy chick who wants to recruit me to her cause and now Vale's council wants me and my team to perform a mission even veteran Hunstman have failed at...Kurama?'_**

 ** _'What?'_**

 ** _'Do you know if Kami is a guy or girl?'_**

 ** _'...I'm gonna regret asking, but, why do you want to know?'_**

 ** _'Cuz I'd like to know WHAT GENDER THE PERSON IS WHEN I'M GETTING FUCKED BY THEM SIX WAYS TO SUNDAY!'_**

Naruto moaned. He SO needed that question answered!

"Really?" Jaune asked, finding it hard to believe Naruto had liberated a nation before on his first time in the field.

 **Barely restraining himself from just jumping out the nearest window in pure frustration, Naruto spoke, "I take it we don't really have a say in this?"**

Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, Kakashi, and Summer all looked sympathetic at the reason for the frustration of Naruto's counterpart.

 **"Unfortunately no. I tried to dissuade them from this decision, but in the end I was out voted. However I did manage to stop from them from sending you out on higher ranked missions...for the next year. Instead you will be taking, at most, three missions a month. This first month will also have you paired with an older team as backup, just in case."**

Kakashi nodded. That made things a little easier.

 **Despite the situation, the whiskered teen was happy to know that his headmaster genuinely cared for his students. It reminded him quite a bit of the elderly Sandaime who had been the one to look out for him in his younger years and the one who had given him his dream to become Hokage. Heaving a sigh of resignation, Naruto nodded, "I'll tell my team the news tomorrow. Any idea when our first mission is?"**

 **"End of this week."**

 **With a tired bow, Naruto left the office, even more eager to get into his bed now.**

 **Once the teen was clear out the door, Glynda decided to enter from the side door where her own office was situated.**

 **"This still doesn't sit right with me Ozpin. Regardless of how I may feel in regards to him, Uzumaki is still a child and he shouldn't be put on the spot like this."**

"Ok...so maybe she isn't all _that_ bad..." Naruto said with a pensive look in regards to Goodwitch.

 **The Headmaster spun his chair and stared out into the window that revealed the vacant campus of Beacon in all its night time glory, "I know. I don't like this either. However you know as well as I do that I was lucky enough to have gotten them the respite that I did."**

"Thank you, Ozpin!" Minato muttered.

 **The grim look on the blond Deputy Headmistress' face revealed that she knew what her longtime friend and colleague had said was true, "And what of team RWBY?"**

 **"Thankfully I was able to inform both Qrow and Taiyang in time and they were quick to use their own connections to put a stop to having Ruby and Yang put on active duty so soon.**

"Wait...WHAT?!" Yang and Ruby both yelped. Their dad and uncle had their own political connections?!

Slapping a hand to her face with a tired huff that turned into a moan half way, Summer rubbed her eyes. Oh...explaining that was going to be a handful!

 **Unfortunately the same can not be said for Weiss."**

Weiss tensed. Oh...she fought down a cringe as bile rose in her stomach. She knew where this was going and did NOT like it!

 **Glynda could only sneer, "It figures that man would push for his daughter to be in such a position, regardless of the dangers."**

 **"Indeed. Luckily with myself as well as Qrow and Taiyang protesting it, there was not much he could do, even with his own political sway."**

The heiress sighed, then shot Ruby and Yang a discreet smile. She'd need to remember to do something really nice for the sisters and their family! And to be honest, it felt GOOD hearing Jacques had suffered a defeat! The creature Weiss was forced to call a father didn't care about people, he cared only about winning, image, and profit. So hearing he'd suffered ANY type of loss felt good for the heart and soul!

 **Crossing her arms under her bust, Glynda joined Ozpin in staring out at the night time view before them, "I am still worried about Team NNPR. Both Uzumaki and Nikos are exceptional fighters far above their age, and Lie Ren and Valkyrie seem intent on catching up, but the world is an unforgiving place."**

Ren and Nora winced. Oh...they didn't need Goodwitch pointing out that fact, they already knew it!

 **"Yes the world is harsh, but I have faith. If worse comes to worse I have no doubt that Mr. Uzumaki will manage to pull something out of his sleeves. He seems to be quite the unpredictable element."**

* * *

 **Instead of going to his room like he had planned, Naruto found himself perched atop a tree on the outskirts of Beacon's campus, staring blankly at the moon. So much had happened in one day that he found himself needing time to adjust and gain his bearings, a task that would be made harder if he were around others. But here in the forest, a place he felt the most at home in, alongside an equally quiet Kurama, the displaced Shinobi found a sense of peace.**

Blake nodded, she felt that way herself sometimes.

 ** _'I wonder how far into the future we are,'_ Naruto mused to himself.**

 ** _'Very far, considering how much the land and world has changed. In my thousands of years of living before I was sealed into your ancestor, the continents and land masses had only moved by the smallest of margins. It must be centuries upon centuries for the continents to have shifted into their current position,'_ Kurama replied.**

 **His container hummed in thought, _'Or something happened to cause the shift to happen faster than they would normally.'_**

 ** _'That is also a possibility. Then there is the difference in the people. It seems we were right to assume that somehow the people have had their chakra split into two, giving birth to Aura and Semblances. Not to mention the birth of Faunus.'_**

 ** _'You think the Faunus are just the descendants of clans like the Inuzuka?'_ Naruto questioned.**

Blake perked up, interested.

 **In turn, the Kyūbi shook his head, _'While it would seem so seeing as how it would be a natural progression for clans like the Inuzuka to become more animalistic, I don't think that is the case. There is just too large a variety from cats, dogs, deer, and other animals for it to be the evolution of those clans, though canine Faunus might have some link to the clans of old. The only plausible thing I can think of is that somehow the world of Summons and this world merged and the consequence of that was the birth of the Faunus.'_**

 ** _'That would explain why I can no longer summon the Toads!'_**

 ** _'Yes, it would seem that with the creators of the contract being technically dead or Mt. Myōboku no longer existing in that plane, the contract is unable to pull anyone or anything to this plane,'_ Kurama mused.**

Blake hummed, rubbing her chin in thought. Seemed she'd need to talk with the ninjas about that later.

 **Rubbing his head in frustration Naruto continued, _'What about the Grimm? And Dust? Where did they come from?'_**

 **The Bijū sat on his haunches and used his tail to scratch underneath his jaw, _'We already know for a fact that the Grimm are much like we Bijū were, entirely made up of chakra, in this case Nature Chakra. However how they are...born is an entirely different matter. We were born when the Sage split the Jūbi. The Grimm may have been born in a similar manner.'_**

Everyone, Summer especially, looked alarmed at that.

 _'So is THAT how Salem does it...?'_ The White Rose thought to herself.

 **While it was plausible, the thought astounded the blond, _'But you said the Jūbi was the origin of chakra! And it took the Sage AND his brother to split up that monster! Even then you and the others only had a fraction of its power.'_**

 ** _'Yes, so if the Grimm were indeed born like us then it raises the question, what were they born from and who was the one to do it?'_**

The readers' eyes widened, with the exception of Ruby's biological, she cringed. She already knew the second half of that questions answer from Ozpin filling in Team STRQ...

 **Naruto nodded in agreement, _'But the nine of you were a one time thing. There are Grimm still being born...almost endlessly.'_**

Those from Remnant nodded grimly at that.

 **Coiling himself around his container's neck, Kurama sighed, _'Unfortunately we still can not answer all these questions. To get these answers the best thing to do would be to try and find anything leftover from our time. If that woman could find some then we should easily be able to find plenty more laying around, forgotten by others.'_**

Noruto hummed, nodding.

 **"You know, I never took you for the brooding type Foxy!" Came a call from below.**

 **Dropping back down to terra firma, Naruto was met with the grinning face of team RWBY's busty brawler.**

 **Crossing his arms with a huff, the male blond retorted, "I was not brooding...just thinking...intensely."**

"And about things that _are_ important..." Summer muttered.

 **Mimicking his posture, though considering Yang's developed figure it had a whole different effect, she snarked, "Yeah, totally wasn't like you had this scowl on your face or anything. Not like you had us all worrying either."**

"Sorry!" Naruto yelped.

 **"How-?"**

 **"Your room is across the way from ours. We all heard when Ozpin called you. Ruby was worried and so we went your guys' room to wait for you. Nora was the one who spotted you...coming this way instead going back to the room."**

"He did have a lot to think about." Ruby defended, which got Naruto to smile at her.

 **"And you volunteered to come get me?" Naruto questioned with a raised brow.**

 **In turn Yang wrapped an arm around her fellow blond's neck, "Figured that if you were gonna be difficult I could always just beat you up and drag your ass back!"**

"Typical Yang..." drawled the other members of RWBY and all of JNPN.

Yang pouted, "You guys stink..."

 **While the two blonds had their fair bit of rough housing, Naruto had to think to himself, _'Maybe finding out all the answers isn't the most important thing right now. If we do find anything, then great. If not, well I have new precious people to worry about.'_**

Minato and Kushina smiled and nodded, feeling happy for their son deciding that.

 **While he didn't voice anything aloud, Kurama was glad to see his container gaining back his old resolve. As much as he seemingly cheered for the teen Uzumaki to become more like a real Shinobi, deep down he knew that if that were to happen, it would be betray every part of who Naruto Uzumaki was. He wasn't supposed to be a good Shinobi. What had made him such a force to be reckoned with was not superior tactics or anything like that. No it was his iron clad will to protect those he considered precious to him, consequences be damned.**

"Damn...props, Whiskers." Yang blinked, grinning.

"Can I just voice I find it good for the heart, soul, and my own piece of mind that someone like that is close with my daughters?" Summer said, smiling at Naruto and his family.

"Not at all." Kushina smiled.

Naruto blushed.

 **It was this drive to do what was right that had endeared the Jinchūriki to him. It was this will to fight for peace that reminded the fox of his own "father", the only being whom he respected more than any other. For a time he had truly believed that Naruto would be the one to do what even the Sage had failed at doing: bring peace to the Shinobi era.**

 **"Alright Foxy, now carry me back!"**

 **"Wait, why the hell should I!?"**

"Bet he feels her chest alone weights a few metric tons..." Weiss said, smirking.

"Why you little...!" Yang roared at the snowflake.

 **"Cuz you made me come out here in the middle of the night wearing only pajamas, so the least you could do is keep me warm and take me back to my bed!"**

 **Realizing that Yang was just as stubborn as he was, Naruto decided that the only way he was going to get to bed tonight without a beating was if he listened to her.**

Summer gave Yang a look of disapproval, to which she looked sheepish over.

 **Lowering himself to his knees, he was only slightly surprised when the outspoken teen jumped onto his back. What really surprised him was when she almost literally began to snuggle into his back.**

 **Nonetheless he began the trek back to their rooms at a moderate pace, enjoying the weight on his back and the warmth it brought to him. Growing up an orphan and the village pariah had left him starved for any kind of attention. It wasn't until recent years that he got the affection he had been denied as a child and even still what most would take as small things meant the world to him.**

"Not...A...Word...I mean it!" Nora growled. She knew what a life like that was like. She still remembered being homeless and picked on for being a stranger to the town of Kuroyuri.

 **The late hour seemed to be taking its toll on his passenger as well as she was slowly becoming slightly heavier, allowing herself to come closer and closer to the realm of Morpheus. On the cusp of a deep sleep Yang snuggled further into his shoulders, "How come you're so warm Foxy?"**

 ** _"_ Cuz I have a gigantic construct of living chakra in my gut that keeps my body temperature far above the normal human temperature,"Naruto quipped to himself.**

 **Clearly even closer to that deep sleep, the busty teen only hummed in response, "Makes sense."**

 **And like that Yang was fast asleep.**

 **Shaking his head and thankful that she was far too deep into the realm of sleep to have really registered what he said, Naruto just smiled.**

 ** _'Well, no one can say I never told them the truth now.'_**

"I don't think that really counts..." Blake said.

"You gotta live learning to deal with the loopholes." Naruto snickered. Seeing Yang growling at him with red eyes, he held up his hands. "What? I need the mood-lightener!" the whiskered you man defended.

Ok...everyone would give him that.

* * *

 **"Did you find what I was looking for Roman?"**

 **Said notorious criminal shrugged and carelessly tossed a scroll that looked like it would fade into dust on top of the table between them.**

"...Oh boy...I don't like this..." Mikoto winced.

 **"Yeah. Don't know why you're so interested in these old things anyways. Not like they're of any real value," Torchwick snarked as he took out one of his cigars.**

 **Only for said cigar to be burnt to a crisp. Turning to look at his technical boss, he felt a shiver of fear run down his spine as amber eyes glared heatedly at him, flames seemingly dancing around the luminescent orbs.**

Naruto winced, "...Cinder..." he muttered. He hated when people like her were interested in him! The damned Akatsuki were more than bad enough!

 **"They are far more valuable than any of the trinkets you normally steal and if all goes according to plan, they will yield me results that you never could. Do not overestimate your own worth Roman, or it may well be your last mistake. Understood?"**

"So wish I could have let Kurama eat her before...seriously!" Naruto complained.

 **Roman Torchwick was a well traveled man. He had fought tooth and nail to get to where he was and had earned himself a feared name in both the criminal underworld and in the political world. As such he had been faced with death many times and yet had still triumphed over those situations, becoming more and more fearless as the years passed.**

 **However sly or powerful he thought himself though, he knew that the woman before him, Cinder Fall, was leagues more powerful than him and could easily incinerate him if she so desired. It had been a long while since he had felt the cold rush of true fear course through his body.**

"Yeesh...sounds like an evil fusion between us..." Mikoto winced, Kushina nodded.

Summer stared. That power and that she had a surname so appropriate, she probably picked it herself...was it possible?! She didn't like this...! Shooting a glance at Naruto, Summer quickly mentally recalled to herself he'd look out for her daughters and their friends in order to reassure herself.

Sheesh...what would Raven say if she saw Summer panicking like this? Probably something along the lines that the Uzumaki boy was a good example of why Raven was so fixated on strength: he was strong enough to where hardly anything seemed to be able to threaten him, and by extent, nothing could really be a threat to who mattered to him, he was so powerful.

 **"...understood. By your leave?"**

 **Cinder casually waved a hand, already engrossed in the scroll he had brought her.**

 ** _'Tailed Beasts? Are they like Grimm? Hmm, this is interesting.'_**

"CRAP!" Naruto swore. "You gotta be kidding me! First time trying to find anything and the one the bad guys get is on the Tailed Beasts?!"

The others from Konoha all shared a worried look. It was plane as day to see how something like that deserved worrying about.

"...Anyone else feel we really could use that break we agreed on before starting this chapter?" Tenten voiced, getting nods from everyone.


End file.
